Evidence status: CURRENT STATUTORY SAFEGUARD. New Mexico’s Pain Relief Act is the statutory framework behind the Medical Board’s pain-management rules and expressly protects legitimate pain treatment.
Accepted pain-management practice is protected
The Act provides protection from board discipline or criminal prosecution when a health-care provider can demonstrate substantial compliance with accepted pain-management guidelines and the statutory standards of practice, subject to rebuttal by clinical expert testimony.
Patients with addiction are not excluded from pain treatment
The Act applies to pain treatment regardless of a patient’s prior or current chemical dependency or addiction. It requires professional boards to adopt standards and procedures that include pain management for patients with substance-use disorders.
What cannot stand alone as the basis for discipline
In a pain-treatment disciplinary action, the Board must consider the totality of the circumstances. The Act rejects using selected patient characteristics or the mere fact of pain treatment as the sole basis for action. The Medical Board’s implementing rule likewise states that both over-prescribing and under-prescribing are reviewed under the same patient-protection standard.
Why this belongs beside Contract for Care
The same legal framework that requires treatment agreements also states that legitimate pain care is lawful and that prescribing validity is judged by the treatment of the patient and available documentation, rather than simply by prescription quantity or duration.
Primary sources
Reviewed: October 4, 2026.
Evidence boundary: The Pain Relief Act does not eliminate the written-agreement requirement. It provides the broader statutory standard within which that rule operates.