Decade of Pain Control and ResearchGlenview, IL – October 31, 2000 –

The 106th U.S. Congress passed H.R. 3244 and President Clinton signed this bill into law. Title VI, Sec. 1603, provides for the “Decade of Pain Control and Research,” to begin January 1, 2001.

The 106th Congress was Republican controlled and Pres Bill Clinton (D) signed the above law.

This is only the second Congressionally declared medical decade, the first being the Decade of the Brain in the 1990s.

With this designation, brought about through the efforts of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American Headache Society, and the American Pain Society, it was hoped that public attention and funding for research would be focused on an under-recognized but very serious issue.

Pain lacks a significant constituency at the federal level, resulting in a lack of investment in research, education, and treatment. This Congressionally declared “Decade” will bring a much-needed focus on pain to both the public and private sectors, and is a first step in stimulating further progress in research, education and clinical management.

This is a major accomplishment for the Pain Care Coalition, and great credit is due to both Philipp M. Lippe, MD for originating the idea and to Michael Ashburn, MD for his diligent work with Senator Orrin Hatch and his staff to enact this law. Dr. Lippe serves as the Executive Medical Director for the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

The Pain Care Coalition is a national coalition that advocates for responsible pain care policies at the federal level. The Coalition was formed in 1998 by the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American Headache Society, and the American Pain Society.

Back in 1914, the Democratic controlled Congress and signed into law by Pres Woodrow Wilson (D)…  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Narcotics_Tax_Act

“The act appears to be concerned about the marketing of opiates. However a clause applying to doctors allowed distribution “in the course of his professional practice only.” This clause was interpreted after 1917 to mean that a doctor could not prescribe opiates to an addict, since addiction was not considered a disease. A number of doctors were arrested and some were imprisoned. The medical profession quickly learned not to supply opiates to addicts. In United States v. Doremus, 249 U.S. 86 (1919), the Supreme Court ruled that the Harrison Act was constitutional, and in Webb v. United States, 249 U.S. 96, 99 (1919) that physicians could not prescribe narcotics solely for maintenance.^“

“The act also marks the beginning of the creation of the modern, criminal drug addict and the American black market for drugs. Within five years the Rainey Committee, a Special Committee on Investigation appointed by Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo and led by Congressman T. Rainey, reported in June, 1919^[25] that drugs were being smuggled into the country by sea, and across the Mexican and Canadian borders by nationally established organisations^[26] and that the United States consumed 470,000 pounds of opium annually, compared to 17,000 pounds in both France and Germany.^[25] The Monthly Summary of Foreign Commerce of the United States recorded that in the 7 months to January 1920, 528,635 pounds of opium was imported, compared to 74,650 pounds in the same period in 1919″

In 1970 The Controlled Substance Act was passed by a Democratic controlled Congress and signed into law by Pres Richard Nixon (R).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act

which created the structure to “deal with” – declare war on drugs – to deal with the illegal drug market that Congress had created some 50+ year earlier.

according to this  Methadone treatment centers started in the mid-60’s  https://www.narconon.org/drug-information/methadone-history.html

“By the mid-1960s in New York City, the rapid spread of disease from one addict to another called for a drastic solution. Researchers at the Rockefeller Foundation developed a system of dosing heroin addicts with methadone to prevent their use of heroin.”

Since this was before the existence of the DEA, the DEA may have been forced to create some sort of licensing of these Methadone treatment centers and thus the same judicial system that declared that opiate addiction was a crime and not a disease was now issuing licenses to treat the “crime of opiate addiction” with a medication

Those of us in healthcare were under the understanding that the “decade of pain” was a result of the Joint Commission https://www.jointcommission.org/ declaring that “pain” was the fifth vital sign and was now a MAJOR STANDARD for hospitals and nursing homes to get/maintain accrediation under the JC.

It would appear now that since we have a “opiate crisis” they are disavowing any connection to that decade of pain and fifth vital sign.

so it would appear that Congress has been the major driving force behind the “opiate crisis” over the last 100 + yrs and the pharmas that produced the various opiates and prescribers that prescribed those same opiates are just minor contributors to the the crisis… if there is even a crisis… .because the majority – and increasing – of OD’s in recent years involves illegal Heroin and Illegal Fentanyl being imported from China and Mexico.