Reading the Oct. 22 story about young Joseph Cahill’s tragic overdose death after a year and a half of sobriety (“Family wrestles with aftermath of York man’s fatal drug overdose”), I wondered:

Why don’t doctors ask patients if they or their family have a history of addiction before prescribing addictive drugs? And why isn’t it more generally known that hospitals are required to treat medical emergencies regardless of the patient’s ability to pay?

Had Joseph Cahill gone to the emergency room to get his arm set when he first broke it, even though he was uninsured, he might have avoided the surgery to repair its poor healing along with the opioid prescription that evidently sidetracked his recovery and led to his death.

It has been my lot in life to have needed many surgeries and to have developed a gamut of extremely painful health conditions.

Thankfully, I do not appear to be prone to addiction. However, I have never been asked by a doctor whether that might be the case before being handed a prescription for opioid painkillers.

I’ve even seen a family member who was addicted to illegal drugs for years given a prescription for opioids following surgery, never having been asked about that history.

I have also been given effective non-opioid painkillers for long-term use, so I am aware these alternatives exist, although I don’t know why they are not used more.

If every doctor and dentist were required to ask about drug-dependency history, many of these addiction tragedies could be averted.

Jane Lauder King

Kennebunk

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