DRUG 'CAP' LIMITS TREATMENT OF ADDICTS

There appears to be no other area of medicine where limits are imposed by fiat on the number of patents a physician can treat. And the rationale for limiting the number of patients who may be accepted for life-and-death treatment with buprenorphine of opiate addiction: fear of creating "buprenorphine mills." How come no one worries about "well-baby care mills," or "diagnostic radiology mills," or "epilepsy mills", or "mills" serving patients with AIDS, schizophrenia, tuberculosis, etc.? It seems clear that government is displaying overt prejudice against the medical problem of addiction and those who provide and receive treatment for it. No wonder, then, that stigma against exists throughout society, and presents an enormous obstacle to those who so desperately want to leave behind a life of illicit drug use and all with which it is associated.