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Are these acquaintances consuming to blunt in or are they just garden-variety addicts with no reason to consume other than to get high to escape life's drudgeries?
Both were given prescriptions by their doctors for pain/anxiety. The problem is that the doctors extended the prescriptions for YEARS....
Everyone expects a pill to be a cure all. It often isn't.
Buying an illegal drug from criminals is going to make your life much more difficult. Better hope it's not laced with fentanyl or you might find yourself dead. If you don't die, you might find yourself in prison.
No, you better hope it is NOT laced with the drug carfentanil which is an Elephant Tranquilizer. I'm on regular Fentanyl - have been for 10 yrs. Not dead yet. Liver- kidneys are fine.
Drug dealers are lacing Heroin with this Carfentanil. Trust me I know. I have had interesting discussions with my pain mgmt doctor and it's all over the Internet.
There are still good pain mgmt doctors around who will prescribe Opioids but he/she will test the patient to make sure they are not using. They can spot a druggie or person who abuses their pain medication. I think the people who have a hard time are in the rural areas. Those are the people I feel bad for. Not sure about the Southern states.
California may be full of kooky Liberals with kooky idea (I am not one of them) but we do have good doctors especially treating chronic pain patients. Legit pain.
It's all about a (professional) approach.
Opioid therapy should only be initiated by competent clinicians as part of a multi-faceted treatment programm in circumstances where more simple measures have failed. Throughout, all patients should be kept under close clinical surveillance. As with any other medical therapy, if the treatment fails to yield the desired results and/or the patient is additionally burdened by an unacceptable level of adverse effects, the overall management strategy should be reviewed and revised. No responsible clinician will wish to pursue a failed treatment strategy or persist with an ineffective and burdensome treatment.
Emphasis on "responsible and professional" clinician.
Our healthcare in the US is focused on profit only, no one really cares about the citizens....
It can't be, nina, because Big Pharma stands to lose billions in profits from painkillers and they did nothing to lobby Congress to stop the de facto banning of painkillers. So why did they not put up a fight? Use of narcotics in the US may have been 80% of world supply before but now it's dropping like a stone and Dr.'s refuse to prescribe them for fear of being busted by the FDA. Plus the industry has been ordered this year and next to cut production of opioids by 40%. It sounds conspiratorial but there is something BIG going on behind the scenes to orchestrate this whole ban because none of it adds up. .
This leads to all sorts of behaviors including increased use of alcohol, illegal drugs, and legal in some places pot. Then there are those who have been stockpiling 'good' drugs for years just in case and it turns out they were right.
I believe pain should be treated and simply allowing people to suffer is not acceptable. It is inhumane. We treat our pets better than this.
A friend of mine is having major surgery at Duke. And she has been told they have a no opioid policy so their intention is to let her suffer instead of giving her a few doses of something that works. Shame on them! This is wrong.
Every time I get in a car, I could hit someone. It's possible. So should no one be allowed to drive because of what MIGHT happen? Guns are sold in this country every minute of every day and they can be used to kill people. We have no problem with that. But we refuse painkillers to those who need them and feel righteous about it.
I believe the real truth is that people who want to use have always found their substance of choice and they always will. All these new policies will only keep these meds out of the hands of people who really need them.
I am hearing about this no opiod policy ss well. A friend recently had knee replacememt surgery and they sent her home with tylenol. I had both knees replaced two years ago and cannot imagine recovering from that surgery without vicodin. I was on a pretty high dose for five weeks and honestly did suffer from withdrawal when I stopped taking them to go back to work. Not prescribing for people in real pain is not the answer, however I do think we could have pain management specialists involved in these cases where rhey closely monitor the patient for abuse and work with them to wean you off the drugs when it is time. I was pretty much in my own with large dose prescriptions and zero guidance on using them from my doctors. If I wasnt si aware of the addiction issues and was on top of it all the time I was taking them, I could have easily developed a problem.
I am hearing about this no opiod policy ss well. A friend recently had knee replacememt surgery and they sent her home with tylenol. I had both knees replaced two years ago and cannot imagine recovering from that surgery without vicodin. I was on a pretty high dose for five weeks and honestly did suffer from withdrawal when I stopped taking them to go back to work. Not prescribing for people in real pain is not the answer, however I do think we could have pain management specialists involved in these cases where rhey closely monitor the patient for abuse and work with them to wean you off the drugs when it is time. I was pretty much in my own with large dose prescriptions and zero guidance on using them from my doctors. If I wasnt si aware of the addiction issues and was on top of it all the time I was taking them, I could have easily developed a problem.
Exactly. There are so many commonsense solutions to this problem. Produce the MRI's, produce the medical history, produce the clean criminal background check and get your meds with strict supervision, pill counts pee tests and the first time you're caught selling you lose the pills forever. That's commonsense approach.
But Dr's and pharmacies are being ordered not to hand them out to anybody regardless of whether they can prove they're in excruciating pain. They're being told not to hand them out after surgeries. Soon they won't hand them out for terminal cancer either. You heard it here first.
I'm telling you all--and accuse me of tinfoil hat conspiracies, go ahead--but there is an effort afoot in this country to stamp out legal prescription painkillers. To what end I can only speculate but I definitely suspect the drug cartels who make BIG $$$'s selling heroin, and the prison industrial complex who makes BIG $$$'s locking up these addicts who get caught buying heroin, and the drug rehab complex who make BIG $$$'s treating heroin addiction are all in on it.
The problem in the US is that we'd rather throw them in jail than treat the addiction. Heroin zombies who do property crime or turn tricks to support their addiction aren't exactly benefiting society. Jail is expensive. Other first world countries have a more enlightened approach.
Yes, at least for some. There is already a lot of misinformation in this thread. Skip to the bottom for the quick summary.
My quick background. Seven years ago I was retiring from flying F-16's in the Air Force. About 2 months prior to my retirement, I had a bad stomach ache for a little over a week. I was on terminal leave to the area I was going to retire so I didn't know a sole. Anyway, it finally became so bad I went to the ER at midnight and was told I needed an appendectomy. I had been in charge of a group before and they are quite common. I had known maybe 10 people who had them. I expected a quick endoscopic surgery and to go home the next day. I called my wife and told her it was no big deal, I would drive home the nexst day and she didn't even need to come down. I was sadly mistaken.
I awoke from my surgery and I could see daylight through one of the windows. I was in ICU, my wife was there crying and they had a lawyer and clergy on call for me. Turned out my appendix leaked for that week instead of just becoming inflamed. I had septic gangrene which was shutting down all my organs and I was massively ripped open where they had attempted to remove as much of the gangrene as they could from around my internal organs. They didn't expect me to live through the week.
Fortunately I did survive. For the next four months I was in and out of the hospital all the time. I had to be left open with my organs exposed and they would be cleaned daily and repacked with wound gel gauze. Sadly, that was nothing compared to what I was in for.
After 4 months, I was finally feeling better. I had closed up from the inside out with very little scarring. But my body was destroyed permanently. Within weeks I started to discover I had symptoms of severely aggressive Rheumatoid Arthritis; Later Lupus, Ankylosing spondylitis, and symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis set in. I developed Common Variable Immune Deficiency where my body could no longer create antibodies. My lungs and heart no longer functioned properly... my resting heart rate is over 100 and I am on supplemental O2 constantly. My Thyroid stopped functioning, as well as my ability to make testosterone. When I was still strong enough, I went to several different hospitals around the country, Mayo Clinics in two states, etc. The worst problem was the ever increasing pain. My "10" or the worst pain you could imagine from 7 years ago is less that what I live with daily now despite the best efforts of dozens of specialists and treatments. Opiate therapy has been the only thing that has kept me alive. I have tried spinal simulators, Physical Therapy, Medical Marijuana (which helps, but nothing near the pain relief I get from opiates).
I had been very active in my life. I had broken more than 10 bones playing sports in High School and college. The closest thing I can say the daily pain I live with is hitting you thumb or finger with a hammer (if you've ever done construction). Put that pain in every joint in your body. My feet and back are the worst as I can barely stand anymore.
Now I'm on an enormous dose of Opiates. I've had people freak when I tell them the dosage. But it's the only thing I have left. I do live in a state with Medical Marijuana, and have tried it and continue to
Yes, you do develop a tolerance for the drug. But it is manageable if you stick to taking your meds as prescribed. Yes, my body has developed a physical dependence on the opiates but it is completely different than addiction. Yes, I have side effects, etc. But bottom line, Opiates have been the only thing that has kept me from taking my own life, and they do work for many people that have extreme physical pain where nothing else is available for them. There are many diseases that cause pain just as high as any cancer with no end.
Now, here are some of the laws and consequences I have experienced due to the war on drugs and new laws and regulations. (At least in my state... I don't know how much is Federal).
1. Doctors have a limit of how much they can prescribe. It doesn't matter how many patients, or what type. Even Physicians at a pain management center are under the same regulations. Because my dose is so high, many physicians don't want to see me, because they can see and prescribe opiates to many other patients that require a lower dose or see me now. Fortunately I have a compassionate physician that I've seen and understands what I am going through.
2. Pharmacies are only allowed so many opiate pills. There are some constraints as to the size of the pharmacy and how many patients they see, but not of what type. Again, my daily proscription exceeds what many people get for moderate to major surgery for their entire recovery. I have had multiple pharmacies drop me and I've been told by them it was because they could serve more patients (who would use the pharmacy for their other meds and make more money).
3. My pain management clinic is zero tolerance for any illicit drug (Except Med Marijuana which they grant me my card). I get urine tested every month as there are no refills, I have to see the doctor monthly. I also get two random urine tests where I have 48 hours to show up and get tested as well as do a random pill count to make sure I have exactly the amount I am supposed to have. Despite that, pharmacies can completely deny your prescription. Even though it is from a large pain management facility less that 2 miles away. The same doctor for the last 4+ years. The same prescription. I was hospitalized once because of new management at my pharmacy and they refused my prescriptions. Besides the effects of withdrawal symptoms, I tore my vocal cords from crying and yelling, and had to have an ambulance take me in the fetal position to the hospital and sedate me before they could stabilize my pain meds again.
I have never gone to heroine. I wouldn't even know how to get it, except there are others like me that I've met seeing the required pain management psychologist. I've met them and there are forums for people like me to get support from others. I have even been told by multiple doctors as well as more than one psychologist that if I were to be denied my meds again to use heroine or methadone at a clinic as a stopgap.
--------------------------------
So yes, there are people moving to Heroine. There are sicknesses, diseases, injuries, etc. where we have the means to keep people alive, but no means to relieve there pain.
When you see comments like "Opiates don't work for the long term" or "Doctors should treat the source of the pain not mask it with addictive drugs", please remember there are people like myself where there is currently no other option. Opiates can work long term if overseen by a knowledgeable physician and taken responsibly. There are injuries and pain that exceeds the ability to "meditate or compartmentalize" the pain. Those are all techniques that work for certain people and their level of pain. I can promise anyone that isn't possible for me.
I have no desire to take Heroine, get high or euphoric. I never have had that in my personality. But I've promised I'd try to do everything I could to survive, even to be the bedridden father for my kids. I hate needles as it is having to give blood weekly as well as hormone shots and infusions for Igg and to manage my autoimmune diseases. But if I suddenly was denied treatment again despite never failing a drug test I would. Yes I personally know people in similar situations that have gone to heroine. Because of a doctor on vacation, or insurance requiring them to change pharmacies that would not honor their pain meds despite local doctor prescriptions.
Sorry for the rant, but it is a touchy subject in our house. Because of an armed theft at my pharmacy I had to go elsewhere and was rejected by 17 pharmacies.
I'm sure there are people that will think I'm a junkie or could manage my care better. All I can say is I was completely normal and was much more unsympathetic 7 years ago before my appendix killed me. My lungs, heart and kidneys are failing now and I don't have much longer to live. Already died in the ER for 2 minutes a year and a half ago. I shouldn't have to worry and fight to have my prescription anymore than someone needing insulin or statins or antibiotics.
Addiction is defined as use of a drug that displays tachyphylaxis ("tolerance"- you need to keep increasing doses to achieve the effects of the previous dosing) AND, sudden discontinuation of the drug causes a withdrawal syndrome.---by this definition someone on, say, four hydrocodone/APAP a day for years is not addicted because there has been no escalation of dosing and probably no actual withdrawal on cessation.
People with chronic pain have low serotonin levels. Depressed people have low serotonin levels. Narcotics, among other things, raise serotonin levels. Patients who like to remain on narcotics after initial prescription for obviously painful conditions (broken leg, surgery, etc) often do so, maybe without realizing it, because it is treating their depression.
The majority of drug overdose deaths are caused in heroine users who finally "got clean" but then went back to using, starting off with the dose they left off with-- way too much after they had lost their tolerance.
The govt intervention in a medical problem will only make things worse. They are forcing patients into pain clinics which are very expensive and have a habit of escalating treatment in returning pts. Not only are doses increased when pts continue to complain of pain, but increasingly addictive drugs are prescribed in succession. The alternative as many have indicated above, is for the pt to turn to street drugs.
People are going to get their pain relief and/or recreation NO MATTER WHAT.
Obviously those in government are uneducated in the ways of the world - or, they just don't know what else to do.
Russia is a sad place. Most all drugs are highly illegal except vodka, of course, But much of the new generation doesn't want to drink themselves to death by 50 (I think Russian males were dying at avg. 55 a few years back).
I read online that those who want opiates are finding "straw" - that being the stalks of the opium plant - and somehow extracting the tiny bit that is in there..and then injecting it!
Doesn't sound like fun.
The book Dreamland describes the current street availability as very inexpensive and with great service. No more knives, guns or fists. Nice boys meet your car like pizza delivery. If you complain about anything they apologize and ask how they can earn your business back.
My friend in Las Vegas confirms this - he says getting "black tar" on the street is easier than buying pot. He said that a lot of people just roll little bits of it up with tobacco and off they go.
I think folks can understand all of this better if they realize what Capitalism is...that is, our brand of Predatory Medicai Capitalism. It's quite simple - the more money churned, the better. It's better for the GDP. It's better for many businesses. Even when the Government "reacts" and gives billions to "fight" the crisis, that money goes into the connected pockets. Many of the same Pharma firms produce the "cures" (methodone, etc.)....
This is not going to change. It's not about The People. It's about control of The People and Money.
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