Walgreens, settled an $80 million settlement with the Drug Enforcement Agency to resolve charges it failed to properly control sales of narcotic painkillers. The pharmacy enacted a plan to correct the problem. But the plan, doctors and patients say, is so controlling that proper pain management is affected. Put into effect before the settlement was announced last month, the Walgreens strategy, at least as it has been interpreted by pharmacists in the field, has resulted in many calling physicians for explanations of diagnosis and treatment plans of patients.

Given the problem with prescription drugs, the government’s latest figures show overdose deaths from painkillers totaled more than 16,500 in 2010, more than heroin and cocaine combined — it isn’t surprising that some “innocents” get hurt. Stamping out prescription drug abuse, of course, shouldn’t just be about filling prescriptions. It should also be about practitioners educating people that sometimes biofeedback, acupuncture, massage, physical therapy or exercise work better than pills.

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