Cave states that there are 20 to 50 million Americans who suffer from pain and need the relief that drugs like OxyContin provide. I would imagine if every one of those pain sufferers who are eligible to vote reminded their various elected representatives that they do vote, said representatives might be less inclined to play politics with their constituents' healthcare.

-- Michael Varien Daly

Damien Cave asserts: "It is difficult to argue with laws intended to make it harder for addicts to get drugs."

Actually, it's easy to argue with such laws. They artificially inflate the price of the drugs and encourage addicts to commit property crime. They create lucrative black markets that enrich only criminals. They result in adulteration of the drugs, making them more dangerous to users.

Of course, the real problem is that it is hard to argue with the popular prejudice that people should not be allowed to decide for themselves which drugs to take. But with so much evidence of the human suffering caused by prohibition, it might be worth the effort.

-- Giles Burgess

This story highlights one of the contradictions in the argument to not allow physician-assisted suicide: People who are against it say that we have medicines that can make people with chronic conditions comfortable, ignoring the fact that many of those who need these drugs have a very hard time getting them.

I watched my grandfather die of prostate cancer that had moved to his liver and kidneys. He was in terrible pain, and everyone knew that he had only a couple of weeks to live. My mother had to badger the nurses into giving him morphine on a regular basis since they didn't want to give him much (or any, really), their reason being that it is a very addictive drug. Hey, the man has two weeks to live! Who cares if he spends his last 14 days dependent on morphine?

Couldn't the DEA find something better to do with its time than investigating doctors who help people manage their pain? I know people who are addicted to Chapstick, but we don't force the vast majority of people to live with dry lips as a result.

-- Sarah Hawkins

Read "Raging Mom" by Dayna Macy

Thank you, Dayna Macy, for showing me that I'm not the only angry parent in the world. Motherhood is definitely not a Pampers commercial.

-- Marie-Therese Hernon

Is this little diatribe yet another essay giving thinly veiled support to mothers who kill their children, ` la Andrea Yates? Or is it one woman's problems with anger management? Does anyone care? Everyone gets angry. The differences in people lie in how they deal with it. So deal with it.

-- David Nierengarten

Thank you, Dayna Macy! No one I know will be honest and talk about this, or maybe I am the only one who doesn't love every single minute of motherhood. I thought something was wrong with me. So many of my friends are these perfect-seeming mothers (and fathers) whose entire being seems to revolve around parenthood, and here I sit "selfishly" mourning who I used to be, wondering if I will ever get to be her again. My daughter is the brightest star in my universe and the love of my life (I feel as though I have to qualify any negative comments about motherhood), but the resentment I feel toward motherhood (what about my needs?) is sometimes enormous. She and I have both gone through the anger issues as well (and continue to), and I have learned so much from her about feeling it, getting it out and then just letting it go. Thank you so much for sharing your story; I will put it next to my bed (with all my how-to-be-a-perfect-parent books).

-- Catherine Young

I related strongly to the writer's frustrations and anger, and especially to how her friends and mom groups wouldn't talk about how hard it is to give up so much of our own lives in order to meet the needs of little ones. That kind of admission is not easy, no matter what the rewards. When my two kids were both under age 3, I had a supportive husband who enabled me to be home full time, enough money to buy what we needed, close relatives and friends with little kids with whom I could trade "time off," lots of education and experience with children, all the love in the world for my babies ... and still I found myself capable of unbelievable rage. It was at this time that I completely changed my attitude and opinion about abortion. If I could come so close to throwing my beloved child against a wall, how can I expect someone less prepared to handle a child she maybe didn't even want? I don't wish that on the child or the woman. I would never again support legislation that would hinder this most personal of choices.

-- Bonnie Rames

Thank you for continuing to include articles such as Dayna Macy's "Raging Mom" on your Web site. In a society that is full of card-carrying members of the mother cult, this is one of the only places where I can get any sense that there are other women like me out there who, despite feeling almost boundless love for their young children, still struggle with feelings of frustration, isolation and resentment at the daily grind of mothering in the modern world.

-- Laura Story

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