Washington, D.C.

Guidelines released for prescribing narcotics

New guidelines seek to improve treatment for millions of Americans with unrelieved pain by spelling out exactly how to prescribe powerful painkillers like Oxycontin and morphine without attracting the wrath of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Many doctors hesitate to prescribe narcotics, which are heavily regulated because they can be abused by addicts.

The guidelines issued Wednesday, written by leading pain specialists together with the DEA, stress that the drugs are safe for the proper patient — and pledge that doctors won’t be arrested for providing legitimate therapy.

The DEA is distributing the document to agents and prosecutors to help them distinguish aggressive pain management from drug diversion. A lot of opioid-taking patients in a practice shouldn’t by itself signal suspicion, the guidelines advise, while long-distance prescribing and a lot of premature refills might.

Virginia

Release sought for American ‘combatant’

A U.S. citizen captured on the Afghanistan battlefield might soon be allowed to walk free after three years in custody, bringing an end to one of the Bush administration’s longest and hardest-fought legal battles to arise from the war on terrorism.

Lawyers for the government and for Yaser Esam Hamdi informed a federal judge Wednesday they’ve been negotiating his release since the Supreme Court said enemy combatants could not be indefinitely detained without legal rights.

In court papers filed jointly, the lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar to stay all proceedings in the case for 21 days so they could try to complete efforts to reach a mutually acceptable resolution.