Do Only "Nice People" Deserve Drugs?

According to a recent article published in The International Journal of Drug Policy, physicians have two distinct ways of talking about patients requiring opiates.

On one hand, there are the "deserving pain patients," who are considered worthy of being prescribed opiates, while on the other are the "undeserving addicts." Authors of the study note that viewing people in this way causes further stigma to those labelled as "addicts," taking away the credibility of their pleas for pain relief, and undermining their rights to accessing appropriate treatment.

Having worked with people with chronic pain, as well as people with addictions, and those whose diagnoses cross over both categories, I have noticed that this stigma is not limited to physicians, it is just as prevalent in among their patients. The distress felt by a chronic pain patient at the idea of being labelled an "addict" can sometimes be greater than the distress of the pain itself.

Yet why should this be? Why should someone with an addiction be any less deserving of compassion and treatment than someone with a different kind of disability? Somehow, an addiction is seen as the "fault" of the addict, despite all we know about the numerous physical, psychological and social causes of addiction, yet an irresponsible driver with an injury is seen as a "victim of circumstance."