As a matter of safety, it is wise to limit prescriptions for people seeking drugs for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately this can also impact on patients already suffering the embarrassment of pleading for the pain relief they need to maintain their quality of life and who are known to their regular prescriber.

This apparently arbitrary move, which took effect on June 1, is cruel. After a car accident decades ago, I was hospitalised for two years with a period in a coma. My life continues to be bearable and manageable now only because my severe pain levels were reduced by the appropriate prescribing of opiates prior to June 1.

Now, being bullied by specialist practitioners to lower my dose of opiates simply to follow this new legislation has caused me much anxiety. One rationale for this TGA decision, ironically, was because opiates had led to suicide. The most likely outcome when bureaucrats, rather than doctors, set dosages is that more suicides may result.

Additionally, the specialist I needed to see in order to be authorised to continue my dose of opiates made the frightening suggestion that I should spend a week as an inpatient to have an infusion of ketamine. When I was last given ketamine in hospital, a side effect was I become so terrified I screamed for the nurses to remove the dragons from my room. My specialist calmly told me hallucinations were a well-known side effect. I protested, stating I'd never experienced such terror previously, and had no wish to repeat the experience. She still wanted me to do it. Not again for me.

Douglas Mackenzie (Letters, July 5) posits that Ian Warden could be sprouting new beards overnight. This is clearly a "fur-phy".

Ian Warden ("Magic moments are hit and myth", Panorama, July 4) has demonstrated an appalling lack of knowledge about Lake Burley Griffin.

Prior to the construction of Scrivener Dam, the Molonglo River would flood regularly to cover an area greater than this "fake millpond" does now.

There is probably no monster in the lake which is the size of the Loch Ness one, but monsters there are. Aquatic birds swimming around have been seen to suddenly disappear.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in early March, just as coronavirus was unfolding. With almost no savings and a casual job, I was pretty worried about how things were going to go. I have found the public breast cancer service in Canberra to be amazing. I have received top-notch attention, skilful surgery, specialised breast cancer nursing, counselling, social-worker assistance, oncology, and now chemotherapy.

At every step of the journey I have been aware of the work and commitment of those patients and doctors before me who have thought through what I might need and tried to make this journey as easy as possible for me. And all of it is free. I wish for all people to have access to such excellent care.

Why does the PM turn his back on the Rohingya in camps in Bangladesh and fast-track the entry of wealthy Chinese from Hong Kong? Are the Chinese more likely to vote LNP?

I am wondering how Kym MacMillan knows that the great majority of Australians support the War Memorial development (Letters, July 9). It is an unfortunate fact of life that what we would like to be true isn't necessarily the case. MacMillan presents no evidence other than confident assertion.

Re: Robin Poke (Letters, July 9). Can we also ban some other Americanisms, like when our sportspeople say they played "good" when they mean they played "well", and also when they say they are now "healthy" when they actually mean they are now "uninjured"? We can do better.

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