Article: BOARD OKS NARCOTICS FOR CHRONIC PAIN STATE MEDICAL PANEL REVERSES ITS POLICY, AS EVIDENCE DISCOUNTS DRUGS' ADDICTIVENESS.(LOCAL)

Byline: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Medical Board is reversing one of its guidelines for physicians and endorsing the use of powerful narcotics to manage chronic pain.

The board explained in a policy statement distributed last week that doctors should consider using the powerful painkillers when the narcotics would end suffering previously considered untreatable. The board, which oversees the conduct of the state's physicians, emphasized that it does not endorse casual use of narcotics like morphine, codeine and fentanyl.

The policy shift is a response to growing evidence that drugs derived from opium are more rarely ...

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