This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, April 12th,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

Politicians regularly involve law enforcement is an effective intermediary between patients and

physicians. Cato's Jeff Singer says those kinds of policies were for many

patients disastrous during the pandemic and none of the rules that govern

opioids in particular are based on evidence or respect for individuals.

To put it mildly, he says it's cops practicing medicine.

As you recall, in November recall, in November of 2022, I co-authored a white paper called

cops practicing medicine which traces the involvement of law enforcement in not only

intruding into the patient-doctor relationship, but in trying to influence and direct how doctors practice medicine, all as an outgrowth of drug prohibition and the war on drugs.

And the latest example of that is the Drug Enforcement Administration's new proposed rules regarding telemedicine and prescribing of controlled substances.

So during the pandemic as an emergency measure, there are obviously many people couldn't get into doctors, doctors officers

were closed. So they relax the requirement that a person has to see a health care

practitioner in person in order to receive a prescription for

a controlled substance and when it comes to people who were getting

referred for addiction treatment for substance use disorder to be started on

Bupinorphine which is one of the two most commonly used medications to treat opioid use disorder.

The same relaxation occurred where

since many offices were closed, you didn't have to get into the

addiction specialist's office to get the

prescription you could be given that through a telemedicine visit. Well now that

the emergency is coming to a close the DEA is offering new rules.

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