6th Edition of World Nursing Science Conference 2026

Abstract

A quarter of the US adult population suffers from chronic pain – up to 25 million of them at levels of severity called “high impact” by US public health agencies. Likewise, 48.5 million Americans (about 18% of the population over 12) have an unrelated but diagnosed substance use disorder, which includes addiction to drugs or alcohol.
There is substantial overlap between these groups, although treatment of chronic pain is rarely associated with iatrogenic substance use disorder. Both groups are now substantially under-served by clinicians and/or community-based programs of clinical treatment or management. The author reviews evidence from multiple sources to demonstrate that misdirected public health policy and indeed outright misinformation long known to US public health agencies have been major contributors to the ongoing criminalization of doctors and nurses who treat pain and to deaths by suicide of tens of thousands.
This presentation builds upon a previous session given by invitation to the SYNC-2026 harms reduction conference at Arlington VA on March 19, 2026: “An Indictment of US Public Health Policy for Treatment of Pain”. The previous work and published paper is expanded to characterize the so-called “War on Drugs” as an abject and entirely predictable failure that has deeply damaged the credibility of public health agencies at both Federal and State levels. The work is supported by 30 references.