I wasn't putting down alternative therapies. The wrong drugs are not an alternative therapy, they are malpractice. Pt is great for delaying back problems as is stretching. Hypnosis is an alternative therapy are is Qigong, yoga, acupuncture and ,many other forms and they all have there place. For late stage chronic pain that is not going to get better or abate, for pain that will only progress as you age, as you become more disabled, stretching, exercise and PT may help but they are not an alternative for real pain management. Narcotics have there limit, they can only do so much but reverting to what might have been appropriate or useful when you you were 40 is a cope out on the part of medical professionals. The fact that some people were given narcotics which they misused and became addicted to does not make it ok to throw real patients who used their drugs as they were meant to be used and did not abuse them, under the proverbial bus. I am a Qigong practitioner, an energy healer. That's an alternative therapy. As good as it is, and as skilled as I am, I cannot correct the damage of a crumbling spine or the lasting ravigis of radiation and chemo therapy. The congress passed a law preventing the DEA from investigating the drug manufacturers. This was done because these same manufacturers are almost certainly selling their drugs on the black market to drug dealers just as the manufacturers of Quaaludes were in the 70's. Think about the number of overdose deaths and ask yourself if you raelly think well meaning doctors could be responsible for a problem of this major scale.