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Wallace I. Sampson, MD
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center San Jose, Calif

JAMA. 1992;268(23):3316.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The recent exchange of letters regarding the article by Weintraub et al¹ tries to deal with the problem on a higher plane than that which concerns most physicians.^2-5

We must accept the reduction in numbers of suicide attempts and in the writing of inappropriate prescriptions when drugs are placed on the Class II narcotics list.

But the issue is not so much an unwarranted intrusion into the practice of medicine. The reduction in prescription abuse is a concern of physicians as well as of the government and the general public. The major issue for physicians is the inconvenience of writing these prescriptions. Multiple-copy prescriptions with state registration cost physicians time and are a nuisance for the following reasons.

In most states, the name, address, and ZIP code must be written out in the physician's handwriting. Why the ZIP code is so important, or even the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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