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Get your state to legalize physician assisted suicide. When Oregon passed its assisted suicide law, it was a real shock to the medical profession. They quit holding out on pain meds because they were panic stricken that their patients would just kill themselves.
The whole addiction thing is a red herring anyway. My wife had kidney surgery last summer. Her doc prescribed 100 oxycodone at a time, and she would go through 100 in a week. She was on them for over a month, and had no addiction symptoms at all. The big problem was pain, but she weaned herself off of them as early as possible because she wanted to go back to driving. Having me be her wheel man for a month really cramped her style.
This was me, too. I never felt any desire to take them, nor do I miss them nor am I ever tempted to take the ones I'm hoarding just in case. Not everyone is susceptible to addiction from Opiates, just like I can have a drink and then not drink, while some people cannot stop.
But at what point do you draw the line? Do you make it freely available for anyone to purchase as much as they want? Do you make it available with no prescription? At that point, why have any drug regulation at all?
What's the difference if I can walk into a liquor store and buy as much as I want, even an amount high enough to kill myself? Is there anything different about taking 3 Percosets versus drinking a bottle of whiskey?
For the record, I'm not calling for it to be made that widely available, I just don't think all patients need to be treated like potential addicts any more than liquor store customers are. Imagine going to the liquor store and the clerk telling you you have to take a pee test first to make sure you're allowed to buy liquor...it would never stand up to the Constitution. But when I am at my very worse, rock bottom and in agonizing pain, I have to jump through hoops, when they have access to my records and can see I have never had issues with pain meds in 55 years?
But at what point do you draw the line? Do you make it freely available for anyone to purchase as much as they want? Do you make it available with no prescription? At that point, why have any drug regulation at all?
Honest answer, I'm not sure.. We have fought the war on drugs for how long now, at what cost and to what end? We have not reduced demand one bit and when we were able to reduce supply it just resulted in illicit drugs becoming more expensive and the crimes surrounding drug trafficking have increased. Maybe the easiest thing is just to decriminalize all drugs and allow physicians to prescribe narcotics in controlled doses to addicts. Congress Needs to Decriminalize All Drugs | dr.carlhart
That's just the puritan religious ethic. Opioids have no adverse health effects. You can take them for decades with no physical or neurological degeneration. The laws and regulations that restrict that were just written to boost drug cartel profits. The Afghan war was financed by the opium poppy.
There are risks associated with taking opioids such as accidental overdose or addiction. The problem with taking them long term for chronic pain is that you will develop a tolerance and the result will be that they no longer control your pain and you will have to find some way to increase the dose or get a stronger drug and that is getting harder and harder to do. I'm not making that up and I'm not casting judgment on people who take opioids I'm stating a scientific fact: Tolerance to Opioid Pain Medications
Get your state to legalize physician assisted suicide. When Oregon passed its assisted suicide law, it was a real shock to the medical profession. They quit holding out on pain meds because they were panic stricken that their patients would just kill themselves.
The whole addiction thing is a red herring anyway. My wife had kidney surgery last summer. Her doc prescribed 100 oxycodone at a time, and she would go through 100 in a week. She was on them for over a month, and had no addiction symptoms at all. The big problem was pain, but she weaned herself off of them as early as possible because she wanted to go back to driving. Having me be her wheel man for a month really cramped her style.
Your wife was taking them for an acute condition, that is a perfectly rational use for those drugs, but taking large doses of opioids for a month is different than taking large regular doses for 10 or 20 years.
Okay. I think what irked people was that your feelings that opioids are the last alternative seemed so...unshakable, is that the word? I think people here understand your position better. No hard feelings.
No, you cannot. Canada is basically a duplicate of US. And in any event you'd have to travel up to Canada to have an appointment with the Dr. who likely would just say, "I'm sorry. I don't prescribe narcotics. Did you actually travel all the way up here just for that?"
As for Mexico there isn't a pain pill to be had. Mexico's policy is to not allow pharmacies to import them.
Great Britain too, you would be lucky to get a prescription for 10 vicodin there and unless it's changed you have to have a 'pain management evaluation' prior to getting a prescription. What made it worse there was a study that followed a group of people from grade school through their 20s and a very large number of that group who misused prescribed opioids also used cocaine and psychedelic drugs at the same time https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ent-painkiller
The philosophical and legal basis for the regulation of harmful or potetntially harmful substances
Yep, our laws are not totally consistent but if we stop for a moment to think about the broad context, it all becomes more understandable.
First, we live in a democracy, which means that if a substantial majority of people are against prohibiting something, then that substance will not be prohibited, period. Prohibition didn't work, and so it was repealed, but we all admit that alcohol ruins some people's lives. The thing is, alcohol has been part of human societies for thousands of years; lots of people use it responsably and see no reason why they shouldn't continue to do so. It is one of life's pleasures - a glass or two of wine with a good meal is very pleasant. But our laws prohibit the purchase of alcohol by children, and society is on board with that.
Tobacco is slightly different because its use is a pleasure ONLY after you become addicted to it, but it has also been in common use for a long time (just not as long as alcohol). It is also different because even moderate use, over time, is harmful, whereas the same cannot be said for alcohol. If it were something brand new, it probably wouldn't be allowed at all. And ditto with the ban on purchase by children - society is on board with that.
It is the forward march of scientific research that has led to various restrictions such as no smoking on airplanes, etc., even in the face of widespread use of tobacco in society. (I grew up in the 1950's - ask me about it!).
Now let's contrast that with opioid pain relievers. Relatively few people, compared with users of alcohol and tobacco, need opioid pain relievers over the long haul. That means that there is not the same public groundswell in support of easy access to same, and that matters since we are a democracy, however imperfect. Short term use is generally accepted - I believe we can still walk out of a dental office with a written prescription in hand - it's getting the refill of it that has become so difficult.
Now let's be careful what I am saying and what I am NOT saying. I am not saying that the current crackdown is fair to legitimate, honest long-term users of pain relievers requiring prescriptions. But in the face of horrible (and not so rare) abuses and over-dose deaths, there is just not the societal resistance to a new "get tough" policy.
I understand easily that chronic pain sufferers find the present situation frustrating and irritating (well, beyond "irritating" according to what I have read in this thread). I agree with them that it is unfair but I don't know what the answer is if we agree that the previous lax "doctors-are-free-to-pass-them-out-like-candy" situations involving a fairly large number of over-dose deaths is unsatisfactory and untenable.
It is just not possible in a complex society to make everything easy and convenient for everybody in every situation.
True statements on their face, but doctors do not practice medicine in a vacuum. By necessity, they have to think about more than their patients' interests, more than figuring things out. They have to think about the law, about their medical licenses, and about potential crimimal prosecution. You can't blame them for that - it's just the reality of the present-day situation.
So it's Big Brother government you should be mad at, not doctors. The law's priority is protecting the lowest of the low (addicts and abusers) not the legitimate patients (you and me). And even in defense of Big Brother government, if you read my earlier post in this thread, there have been horrendous abuses on the part of some doctors themselves whom I consider to be among the lowest of the low despite their medical degrees.
THIS^^^^^^^, a thousand times this!!!!!!
It's sad, but if you look at given states' medical licensing board records for disciplinary action taken against doctors, as well as other licensed medical personnel, you'd find a significant number of those on the lists there for the illicit use of narcotics, often while they are working.
The philosophical and legal basis for the regulation of harmful or potetntially harmful substances
Yep, our laws are not totally consistent but if we stop for a moment to think about the broad context, it all becomes more understandable.
First, we live in a democracy, which means that if a substantial majority of people are against prohibiting something, then that substance will not be prohibited, period. Prohibition didn't work, and so it was repealed, but we all admit that alcohol ruins some people's lives. The thing is, alcohol has been part of human societies for thousands of years; lots of people use it responsably and see no reason why they shouldn't continue to do so. It is one of life's pleasures - a glass or two of wine with a good meal is very pleasant. But our laws prohibit the purchase of alcohol by children, and society is on board with that.
Tobacco is slightly different because its use is a pleasure ONLY after you become addicted to it, but it has also been in common use for a long time (just not as long as alcohol). It is also different because even moderate use, over time, is harmful, whereas the same cannot be said for alcohol. If it were something brand new, it probably wouldn't be allowed at all. And ditto with the ban on purchase by children - society is on board with that.
It is the forward march of scientific research that has led to various restrictions such as no smoking on airplanes, etc., even in the face of widespread use of tobacco in society. (I grew up in the 1950's - ask me about it!).
Now let's contrast that with opioid pain relievers. Relatively few people, compared with users of alcohol and tobacco, need opioid pain relievers over the long haul. That means that there is not the same public groundswell in support of easy access to same, and that matters since we are a democracy, however imperfect. Short term use is generally accepted - I believe we can still walk out of a dental office with a written prescription in hand - it's getting the refill of it that has become so difficult.
Now let's be careful what I am saying and what I am NOT saying. I am not saying that the current crackdown is fair to legitimate, honest long-term users of pain relievers requiring prescriptions. But in the face of horrible (and not so rare) abuses and over-dose deaths, there is just not the societal resistance to a new "get tough" policy.
I understand easily that chronic pain sufferers find the present situation frustrating and irritating (well, beyond "irritating" according to what I have read in this thread). I agree with them that it is unfair but I don't know what the answer is if we agree that the previous lax "doctors-are-free-to-pass-them-out-like-candy" situations involving a fairly large number of over-dose deaths is unsatisfactory and untenable.
It is just not possible in a complex society to make everything easy and convenient for everybody in every situation.
I truly hope you don't find yourself in a chronic pain situation. At least with deaths by opioid overdose, they are out of their misery and it will lower the percentage of addictive personalities that cause conservatives to justify denying people in unbarible pain relief.
That's just the puritan religious ethic. Opioids have no adverse health effects. You can take them for decades with no physical or neurological degeneration. The laws and regulations that restrict that were just written to boost drug cartel profits. The Afghan war was financed by the opium poppy.
The bolded statement above is beyond idiotic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell
The whole addiction thing is a red herring anyway. My wife had kidney surgery last summer. Her doc prescribed 100 oxycodone at a time, and she would go through 100 in a week. She was on them for over a month, and had no addiction symptoms at all. The big problem was pain, but she weaned herself off of them as early as possible because she wanted to go back to driving. Having me be her wheel man for a month really cramped her style.
And this entire paragraph isn't much better. Your anecdote about your wife is as relevant and makes about as much sense as me stating that a relative smoked for 30 years and never got lung cancer; therefore, the whole smoking/lung cancer thing is a red herring.
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