Pain Sufferers Protest Medical Board

People who suffer from chronic pain say they need their medications just to get by everyday. But while protesting at the Arkansas State Medical Board hearings on Thursday, some of them said the board is making it hard for doctors to prescribe those medicines. Earlier this year, the state legislature passed the Chronic Pain Treatment Act, protecting doctors who need to prescribe dangerous or controlled medicines to patients who suffer chronic pain. "But this medical board refuses to follow the legislation passed by this Arkansas legislature," said Rev. Dr. Ronald Myers, American Pain Institute. "I`d be in bed three weeks at least out of the month and my medicine gives me freedom to get up and have a quality of life back," said Thomas Rogers who suffers from chronic pain. Only a couple of pain doctors were called before the board for hearings being held today and tomorrow. No doctors have lost their licenses since the act went into effect.