It appears a fair number of DUers are unaware of an opioid crisis,

[elleng]

so I'm posting some background information.

The Opioid Crisis: One Mother’s Heartbreaking Story

BOSTON (CBS) – “Epidemic” and “crisis” are two words used with growing frequency when describing the escalating number of drug overdose deaths in Massachusetts. While the statistics have led to study committees, round table discussions, and legislative bills, addicts and their families continue to suffer.

In January 2014, an alarming spike in the number of fatal heroin overdoses in southeastern Massachusetts took the crisis from the shadows to the spotlight. The increase was blamed on a batch of heroin laced with fentanyl, but that explanation only scratched the surface.

I dug deeper. I spoke with addicts and their families. I attended support groups, interviewed politicians, police chiefs, a pharmacist who had been robbed, several doctors and a jailed drug dealer.

The research culminated in a multi-part series entitled “Heroin: From Prescription to Addiction,” which aired on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 the last week of June 2014.

Over the past year, the crisis has only intensified.'>>>

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/11/16/heroin-opioid-crisis-deaths-watertown-massachusetts-carol-morris-mary-blake-wbz-newsradio-1030/

It’s not an opiate crisis, it’s a heroin crisis.

'Heroin claimed three lives last week in Lynn, the latest deaths in an opioid crisis that has been escalating across the state for years. In search of a more durable solution, Governor Charlie Baker has appointed a high-level working group, which heard this week from experts on the front lines as well as parents still mourning the loss of their kids.'>>>

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/11/opioid-crisis-really-about-heroin/bPkbdkNpxPQDF7htWSxhqN/story.html

A Comprehensive Strategy to End Opioid Abuse in Massachusetts

Like so many states across the country, Massachusetts is facing a growing epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. In March 2014, a Public Health Emergency was declared in the Commonwealth, triggering the formation of a Task Force which brought together affected individuals and families with stakeholders from public health, law enforcement, medical providers, and community agencies, among others.

Based upon the findings pdf format of Opioid Task Force Report
docx format of Opioid Task Force Report of the Task Force and with funding allocated by the legislature, the Department of Public Health (DPH) has taken a series of concrete actions to strengthen its ongoing efforts to prevent opioid addiction, reduce the number of opioid overdoses, help those already addicted to recover, and map a long-term solution to ending widespread opioid abuse in the Commonwealth.

A comprehensive strategy to address the crisis requires taking action in each of the following four key areas: Prevention, Intervention, Treatment, and Recovery Support. The list below highlights some of the many concrete actions undertaken since the declaration of the Public Health Emergency.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/10/15/opioid-heroin-massachusetts-charlie-baker/

[Chemisse]

1. This is such a huge problem in New England.

I don't know about other regions of the country, but it is massive here.

Thank-you for posting this.

[Texasgal]

5. Very big in the suburbs of Texas too.

Rich white kids becoming addicted.

[elleng]

6. You're welcome.

Some continue to call it a 'fake crisis.'

[Chemisse]

33. It's hard to imagine any family NOT being impacted by this,

either directly or via friends and neighbors.

[elleng]

34. Right.

[Agschmid]

81. +1

[Warpy]

2. They'll undoubtedly do everything but the right thing

which is ending the war on drugs and allowing people to purchase clean drugs in reliable dosages, eliminating this fake crisis so we can start to concentrate on some of the real ones.

[Live and Learn]

7. +1000 nt

[Mariana]

11. Yes.

It won't completely eliminate the overdoses, some will go overboard just like some people kill themselves with alcohol poisoning. But it would surely reduce accidental overdoses.

[LuvNewcastle]

53. I agree.

I'm a hell of a lot more concerned with people in pain who need their meds than I am with overdoses. I despise collective punishment, and when you withhold pain medication from sick people, you are punishing them for the actions of others. I'd rather put Loritabs on the shelf at Wal-Mart than keep meds away from those in pain.

[trillion]

55. there are ample pain meds out there without handing out the massively addictive ones.

The drug companies really are in every hospital and every clinic paying kickbacks to the doctors to dispense.

[LuvNewcastle]

56. They're not lobbying doctors to dispense

hydrocodone, usually, or other cheap drugs. They're pushing the expensive drugs. All you can get is a one-month supply of opiates at a time now. No refills. That's enough regulation. It's just plain stupid to make people get a prescription filled every 72 hours. I'm sure the doctors will enjoy billing for it, though.

[Warpy]

86. First, you are conflating dependence and addiction. They are vastly different

Second, healthy people would rather have their heads clear most of the time. Out of 10,880 patients in the early 80s getting powerful narcotics in the hospital, there were only four new addictions. Four. Out of nearly eleven thousand. Think about that one.

Third, doctors are being heavily leaned on not to dispense these drugs to people in pain. Untreated pain is fatal, leading to social isolation, depression and suicide to make it all stop. You call the drugs "ample." They are, in fact, parsimoniously dispensed.

Fourth, adding layers and layers of bureaucracy to discourage people from seeking help with pain is driving them to the black market, supporting the most vicious criminal gangs worldwide, think about that one, too.

Fifth, all the drug war has done is suppress the safer drugs, encouraging the development of bathtub drugs like krokodil that no one, not even a desperate addict would touch if there were any alternatives available. Think about that one, too. All prohibition does is get you more of the same, only more dangerous forms of it.

The drug war, held so dearly by conservatives in both parties, is the most dismal failure of social, legal and military policy this country has ever had, wasting billions of dollars and millions of lives. You need to rethink your stand.

[closeupready]

91. Thank you for this intelligent rebuttal.

[Butterbean]

72. Totally agree. n/t

[hobbit709]

3. Ever since we invaded Afghanistan heroin is more plentiful and cheaper than ever.

[Downwinder]

15. Who ever thought this might be a problem?

[libodem]

20. That's it exactly

This is the modern day crack epidemic brought to you by the same folks.

Hint: it's not the Afghan poppy farmers.

[Downwinder]

22. Wouldn't be Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance?”

http://narconews.com/darkalliance/

[libodem]

32. That's it exactly

[Downwinder]

40. Always intrigued me:

We went to Southeast Asia and Burmese opium came back.

Operation Condor brought us Cocaine.

Now heroin from Afghanistan.

What next, Khat from Yemen?

[LiberalArkie]

76. It has always been the civilian contractors (CIA) with their own planes and transportation

systems that did it. No accountability at all. That is really all the CIA is good for. Probably the largest drug operation around.

[Kaleva]

48. The crackdown on prescription pills has caused many addicts to switch to heroin and meth

[B Calm]

50. Bingo!

[libodem]

79. The new rules are a burden

And chronic pain doesn't end just because it's harder to fill a prescription. I don't know why some think it's noble to suffer rather than take the edge off. If there is a lot of pain one is never truly pain free and there is no euphoria or high achieved. I studied drug use and abuse back in the 70's. And I now fight chronic pain every day. So I have experience with this.

[Kaleva]

80. I'm caring for a 10 month old 'cause the parents are pill addicts

Got her when she was 5 weeks old, underweight and lethargic. I'm 57, disabled and she's on the floor next to me playing with her blocks. After I post this, I'll change her diapers, feed her lunch and then read her a story.

[libodem]

82. You are a truly beautiful person

Thank you for being there. I'm just a little older than you and I can barely imagine the responsibility you have taken on at my age. I baby sit once a week and come home exhausted.
When I worked in treatment, I supervised the detox phase, after admission. My toughest people to get through to were the nice, regular, housewives, who were in deep denial, because they felt prescription drugs were in a nicer more upstanding class than stree drugs. They felt they had nothing in common with gross street addicts even though they stold from friends and relatives and took the prescription pads from the Dr's office and were in trouble with the board of pharmacy. I was amazed at the tolerance as they said they could use a whole bottle of 30 pills in 2 days and clean house top to bottom. Some people have a paradoxical effect to medicine and for these ladies it didn't knock them out. It would kill me or you.
I kind of understand what they are after now that I have chronic pain because I get insomnia from some medicine.
I could still.never abuse it in that kind of quantity. It makes my insides roll just imagining it.
Bless you grandma for being there for that baby. I hope you have alanon or some support to help you emotionally with the effort of having family with substance problem
You have my utmost respect and admiration.

[Dems to Win]

30. Yes. It's one of the roots of this crisis, it deserves some discussion

More than a decade of US boots on the ground in Afghanistan, and our streets are flooded with heroin from Afghanistan.

Maybe the US military should be explaining it's role in this crisis. I hope one of the candidates will broach this.

[hunter]

4. Curse of unintended consequences...

... people get addicted to prescription quality meds, supply gets cut by well-meaning people who don't understand the problem, prices on clean meds on the street rockets, and users switch to cheaper heroin of unknown quality.

Clinics have to be free, non-judgmental, and easily available to people with drug problems, yes, even if that means giving people the drugs they are addicted to and a place to crash. Better they be in a safe supervised place with clean drugs, than dying on the streets from dirty drugs supplied by gangsters, shooting up with dirty needles, stealing or selling themselves as prostitutes to obtain drugs.

In a supervised setting there is hope, on the streets, not much.

Meanwhile people with actual chronic pain conditions easily treated with non-escalating well-tolerated doses of opiates are hassled for no good reason.

[elleng]

8. Right, and some have pretty good approaches to dealing with it,

for example:

O'Malley discusses ways to fight opiate crisis.

'briefly'

'O’Malley discussed what he would do as president to help states address the opiate abuse epidemic. He has put forth a plan for combating opiate addiction he says would cut by 25 percent the number of U.S. overdose deaths within five years.

“A first step would be to stop the overprescribing of these very potent pain medications,” he said, adding, “the FDA made a big mistake in greenlighting the prescribing of these very addictive medications.”

O’Malley said he would push for a federal investment of $12 billion to help states provide the “continuum of care” that many are lacking to keep people on a safe path after detox or hospitalization and prevent relapses. He also would create a national strategy on fentanyl – the synthetic opioid much more powerful than heroin and has claimed more lives than heroin this year – within 100 days of taking office, he said.

Pointing to his record as mayor in Baltimore, where he expanded drug treatment availability by 20 percent, O’Malley said, “I promised not only to improve policing, but to improve treatment and I’ll be damned some of these government programs don’t actually work … We saved a lot of lives.”

“We struggled a lot, frankly,” he added. “We switched our goal to reducing overdose deaths.”

O’Malley said the most important indicator of whether a person is at risk for overdosing is if they have presented themselves at an emergency room with a “near-miss” once. That point, O’Malley said, is where intervention needs to happen.

The federal government will need to help states build a continuum of care to provide addicts with a safe place for a short-term detox, and readily available 28-day residential programs, he said. He stressed the importance of recovery communities, like one recently proposed for downtown Portsmouth, and said he realizes the difficulties such centers can face with neighboring residents and zoning regulations.

“What works best is to get them paired up with a church or someone respected in the community … You have to pair those with your nonprofits that are there with representatives in the community so neighbors know who they can go to when there are problems,” he said.'>>>

http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20151227/NEWS/151229428

[Bluenorthwest]

10. But the States with Medical Marijuana access have already cut opiate overdoses by 25% and

Martin ignores that already made progress and rants about over prescribing and churches.

[elleng]

13. 'rants about over prescribing and churches?'

[Bluenorthwest]

60. Yes. He ignores the progress being made already by many States entirely and his solutions are

moralistic and yes elleng, he does mention churches as part of the 'treatment'. He's refusing to incorporate that which is actually working AND he layers religion and clergy into his plan. I do not care for that. At all. I don't have to, I'm not religious like Marty. I would rather do what works than make faith based gestures. I would settle for doing both, but if he's not going to be fully honest about it, his skipping to 'limit pain treatment and send them to church for help' is not acceptable.

[Chemisse]

38. I am in a state with medical marijuana access

(Massachusetts) and the drug overdoses have skyrocketed, due to the unavailability of prescription opiates and the low cost of heroin.

I don't see medical marijuana have a large and immediate impact on this problem. But you have data?

[Bluenorthwest]

63. MA is about to hit your second anniversary with medical marijuna. CA is at 18 years.

This is the conclusion from the JAMA study on the subject:
Conclusions and Relevance Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Further investigation is required to determine how medical cannabis laws may interact with policies aimed at preventing opioid analgesic overdose.
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1898878

The rest is at the link.

This is from Penn Medicine and is less dense reading on the same study:

Penn Study Shows 25 Percent Fewer Opioid-Related Deaths in States Allowing Medical Marijuana
Results Suggest Medical Marijuana Laws May Have Unexpected Benefits

PHILADELPHIA — On average, states allowing the medical use of marijuana have lower rates of deaths resulting from opioid analgesic overdoses than states without such laws. Opioid analgesics, such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, are prescribed for moderate to severe pain, and work by suppressing a person’s perception of pain. A new multi-institutional study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, examined the rate of deaths caused by opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2010. Results reveal that on average, the 13 states allowing the use of medical marijuana had a 24.8 percent lower annual opioid overdose mortality rate after the laws were enacted than states without the laws, indicating that the alternative treatment may be safer for patients suffering from chronic pain related to cancer and other conditions.
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2014/08/bachhuber/

I'm not saying that's the only step we can take, but I am saying that if the goal is reduction of overdoses by 25% and that is what is already being done in over a dozen States, that fact should at least be mentioned by O'Malley. He says 'we want to reduce by 25%' but when shown that some of us have done so already he does not seem to care to hear it.

[Chemisse]

67. That is really remarkable!

My husband just got his medi mari license, and has said it takes the edge off the pain. It would be great to see this kind of improvement in other states over time.

[haele]

83. My husband just got his medi-mari card and uses topicals, not ingestable.

Primarily since he can't smoke or vape (addiction to ciggies), and dosing edibles is not accurate at all (he hates couch-lock).
He's got psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, and degenerative disk issue in his spine. Along with bi-polar.
None of his doctors (including his very conservative psychologist) have issue with topical marijuana; they're more concerned with potential interactions internally with his current drugs - the problem with smoking, vaping or edibles.

Before I'd allow him to spend the money on a licenced medi-mari prescriber and card (not to mention the product - $50 for two weeks, and it's not covered under the HSA...), I did some serious study on the subject.

NIH did a study on topical cannaboids, and found there was some positive effect in the ganglia nerves and other close to the skin surface nervous structure - especially in Parkinson's patients; they're still trying to figure out the optimal ways of delivery (patch, spray, gel) and to manufacture it, but for now, an alcohol tincture spray and a camphor-based unguent made by a "friend of a friend" for that girl's grandmother seem to work well for him. As you said, it takes the edge off for four to five hours, and he can do things like use the computer for more than an hour, go to a movie, or even just be able to regularly head to the kitchen, stand long enough get himself a sandwich and a large glass of juice or water, then bring them back to his "chair", which used to be very difficult some days.

I'd like to see some studies on fibro patients, but if there are some studies, they've either not been published or peer-reviewed yet in the UK. Of course, we're not going to see any US studies on this for a while.

Haele

[Chemisse]

87. That is interesting about topical cannaboids.

My husband has fibromyalgia also. We really don't know much about the various ways to use it. So much has changed since we were young and smoked pot every week.

[zazen]

9. meanwhile people suffering from chronic debilitating pain are denied adequate treatment

Believe me, I've got close family suffering from addiction to this stuff, including stealing, prison, the whole bit. Horrible. That family member has had five people close to her die in the late teens/early twenties from OD-ing. Awful. Awful. Awful.

But having had excruciating pain that didn't fully show up on MRI and thinking I'd jump off a bridge if I didn't get serious pain relief (while being treated suspiciously by doctors), and knowing lots of others with my genetic condition who don't get the treatment they need because our problems are soft tissue and don't show up on a lot of tests, I'd rather 9 addicts get drugs if that keeps one person legitimately suffering from agonizing pain from getting the help they need.

I'm with the people who say legalize and then regulate it. The illegality aggravates the sense of isolation and despair that drove the addiction in the first place. Also, women's pain is disproportionately disbelieved by doctors anyway, so those of us with severe chronic pain are on the receiving in on misguided attempts to deal with this problem. I also don't want to subsidize the violent scum who profit off of the illegality by trying to get people hooked.

[loyalsister]

27. There has to be some reasonable balance

I had a friend who deals with chronic pain and was between doctors because she had moved. She said that if it was in front of her she would be tempted, if not inclined, to use heroin.

I agree that something needs to be done, but throwing people who live with chronic pain under the bus just increases the market.

[Chemisse]

35. It's just not humane to make it hard for people who suffer pain every day

to access pain medications.

And every time there is a crack down on the addiction problem, that is exactly what happens.

[JNelson6563]

47. Sadly, the addicts often have children who suffer terrible neglect

or worse.


Just throwing that out there.

[lancer78]

77. hmm

Maybe some of those children would not be neglected if the price of drugs were not $1 a mg because of their illegality.

[JNelson6563]

89. Perhaps not, maybe we should try it.

It would be better than what we're doing now.

[lancer78]

93. I am a big believer in self-medication

Don't European countries provide a daily dose of heroin for addicts?

[frankieallen]

95. England use to years ago, but they stopped doing it because they were creating a nation of junkies

(according to keith richards)

[haele]

84. Problem with addictions are - is it the personality or the drug that triggers it?

My husband was prescribed strong opioids, including straight up morphine for his pain - didn't do a thing for him or his pain. He never craved them, because they were pills...and he takes so many pills for other problems, there's no allure at all. His physical withdrawal symptoms lasted about four days when he went cold turkey.
Just as he's not addicted to drinking. While he enjoys an occasional pleasant buzz, he doesn't like anything to interfere with his choices and interests in life.

He is addicted to smoking, because he's slightly OCD along with bi-polar, and the ritual of smoking is what he craves, not the nicotine. He quit smoking cold turkey, but still sometimes craves the "carefully coddle the right amount of flame and char in something, then put it in your mouth" experience.

Likewise, I've seen people who are addicted - defined as someone who is under the control of a substance or practice that in effect controls their actions, choices and relationships - jump from one addiction to another. The over-use/abuse of one substance or practice gets transferred to another as these people seek a "cure" or rather, a relief of some sort from any guilt or "sin" association the previous abuse or over-use was causing. The problem is more often a glitch (or even feature) in the personality than it is in the substance or practice.
And to a one, addicts will abuse, manipulate, or neglect their children and relationships for whatever addiction they are in the grips of. Drugs. Alcohol. Anger. Extremes of Religion. Sex. Lying. Stealing. Gambling. Shopping. Self-Infantilization. Risk-Taking. All "immoral" actions, based on control issues, self-esteem issues, fear...

One of the reasons why Prohibition never worked, why morality can't really be legislated. Punishing the general population who has no addiction to drugs (or alcohol, or sex, etc...) instead of reasonable regulations, oversight, and rehabilitation for the few who do have addictions is like taking a sledgehammer to your computer instead of running an anti-virus/systems troubleshooting scan when it seems there's a problem...

Haele

[JNelson6563]

88. All very interesting but irrelevant to my comment.

[haele]

92. Actually, it is. What about the childern? is the base of a prohabition argument with addictions.

I know of two families where at least one of the parents are addicted to religion, and in that family, the neglect and abuse those children went through was terrible, as the higher being that is being worshiped was above the health and needs of the family to the parent that ran the family.
In both families, it was pretty much constant neglect -the parent at home let "God" raise the kids, then abused them when those kids (or their friends) didn't live up to the life. In both cases, the parents were recovering physical addicts; they no longer drank, or smoked, or did drugs, but boy oh boy, were they ever addicted to the "high" that worship gave them.

My son-in-law's father isn't "officially addicted", but he's a man-child who neglected (and still neglects) his son (whom he had custody of) far worse than the tweeker I used to work with, who, when she was sober, tried to be the best mom possible for her two children and made arrangements for her mother to take care of them when she couldn't help it and went on a bender.

The 18th Amendment was a single minded attempt to "save the American family" from alcohol addiction by making it almost impossible for adults to get alcohol. And while it did reduce some of the public drunkenness and the amount of public sale, the increase in crime and the criminalization of personal use and consumption of alcohol was not worth the whitewashing of the underlying issues that caused the substance abuse in the first place.

Prohibition, not regulation, legal standards, and rehabilitation was the goal. All in a relatively painless (to the prohibitionists, at least) way to pretend one was doing something about the social scourge of alcoholism without actually addressing alcoholism. Treating the symptom is so much easier.

So, taking your comment seriously instead of talking around it - how do we, by policy, "save the children from neglect" when it comes to dealing with parent who is self-medicating themselves into an addiction, for whatever reason?

Make it harder for the .5% of the population who actually need strong pain relief to function because .02% of the population are in such emotional pain or have issues with the reality they live in and illegally acquire prescription drugs?
Or rather we should embark on a multi-pronged approach that provides safety net (how I hate that term) or rather, builds a safe, nurturing environment, while giving them (the addict and their families) time and support to be able to deal with the underlying issues. Or to identify someone who is just not right with society enough and will never be able to function without altering their own realities?

I've helped and supported too many of my step-daughter's friends, and had to deal with too many addicts and former addicts on the job over the years not to know that simply sighing over the neglected children is not (added on edit) sufficient to solving the problem with addictions.
Those kids usually love their pill-addicted parents even though they're hurting, and I've seen where those parents usually love their kids, even though they (the parents) are not emotionally strong enough to be parents and just can't seem to stop hurting themselves. The sad thing is that most substance addicts know they are weak, and losing out to whatever substance they are addicted to.

Haele

[JNelson6563]

94. It was a somewhat flippant remark

I addressed in my original reply, or at least it came off as rather flippant to me.

What prompted my remark was stuff I had witnessed. Children left as collateral with a meth dealer, prison for parent(s), foster care for kids and all manner of horrors in between.

I agree that solutions are needed! Lots of them. We are doing it all wrong, I know this for certain. None the less, the consequences of the addiction problem merit much more than a dismissive wave of the hand while focusing on the legitimate medical needs. Those needs will continue to go unmet as long as the addiction problem is raging like a city-wide fire.

Julie

[kiva]

12. So patients with chronic pain get sacrificed in this latest war on drugs?

From the last link:

In an effort to prevent addiction, part of the governor’s proposal calls on doctors to limit the amount of medication they can prescribe to patients.

“The days of people walking out of a dentist’s office or doctor’s office with 30 or 60 or 90 days worth of this pain medication need to come to an end,” Baker said.

Under his plan, patients would be limited to a 72-hour supply of those powerful painkillers.

Nope.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

21. That frightens me.

72 hours of pain meds?

It's not my fault I have this disease so why should be punished for other people's fuck ups?

[one_voice]

24. I support O'Malley..

and I take issue with that. I suffer with a debilitating neurological/neuromuscular disorder, that also affect my circulation. It's extremely painful. I've learned how to live with a lot of the pain without pain meds but one can only 'deal' with a certain amount.

It's not fair to ask people to live with horrible pain because you're afraid they might become addicted. I've been on pain meds off and on for over 20 years and I've never become addicted. I don't get 'high' when I do take them, I get a small amount of pain relief which I'm entitled to. I should have some sort of quality of life.

72 hours is not realistic for those that suffer daily.

[CTyankee]

68. these laws affect me getting Percoset to deal with my shingles....and it barely helps...

it dulls pain a bit, but its still there. I'm on Gabapentin too and its been upped to 4 times a day. Mostly, I am in pain...it's just the degree to which it is depending on the clock...

[loyalsister]

28. This warms me to the idea of decriminalization of opioids

If people who are addicted to them can have them prescribed by a doctor who follows them to help keep them safe, I think the market for heroin would be reduced by a lot.

[Kaleva]

49. Some addicts around where I live pick at their gums causing sores...

so they can get prescriptions from a dentist for Vicodin.

[MerryBlooms]

64. I recall not long ago, states cured Meth addiction by limiting

and denying pseudoephedrine.

[Mnemosyne]

75. It is customery in the US to make sure that those in need suffer as much as possible.

O'Malley's plan is extremely misguided, imo.

Many years ago, I caught a friend trying to slice through her own spine with a razor blade because she could not get adequate pain relief for an extremely painful spinal issue. If she had access to proper pain meds she never would have become so desperate.

It infuriates me to this day seeing so many good people destroyed by puritannical control freaks.

It is known that a percentage of any population will be addicts, iirc it was about 8 or 9 %.

[LeftyMom]

14. The real crisis is that the sick and the dying go without adequate treatment for their pain.

I've known more than one terminally ill patient who was told that they couldn't get decent pain relief because they might become addicted. People who were going to be dead in months at most. That's how afraid doctors are that the feds will think they're overprescribing or how restrained by some puritanical impulse that values pain over comfort.

[hunter]

16. Puritanical, for sure. Like suffering needlessly will increase the odds you are admitted to heaven.

That's bullshit.

Who'd want to live in the heaven of that kind of asshole god, anyways?

Not me.

Watching people dying denied pain meds is horrible, seeing dying people reject pain meds for themselves for similarly misguided "puritanical" reasons is horrible too.

[LeftyMom]

17. A woman I knew had two separate terminal cancers, a bad heart and brittle diabetes.

Her doctors were giving her a wildly inadequate dose of a not particularly good non-narcotic pain medication. It didn't work for shit, but by god, she wasn't getting high on it. They also REFUSED to refer her to any doctor who could or would give her better pain medication.
So she tried to kill herself. And failed.

They cut her pain medication BY HALF to punish her and to keep her from trying again.

They also refused to arrange for her to get a wheelchair and tried to refer her to physical therapy to strengthen her legs. Again, she was dying. So she spent her last weeks unable to leave her home. Her wheelchair was delivered the week she died.

But by god, she wasn't going to die lazy or or high on their watches.

I wish there was a hell so everybody who tormented her could burn in it.

[hunter]

19. Yep.

[TheFrenchRazor]

42. scary. and insane. i worry about just that thing happening to me. nt

[laundry_queen]

46. Aw jeez.

That's just awful. I totally agree with you. Hell in this case would be useful.

[TheFrenchRazor]

44. yep. nt

[valerief]

18. Isn't that why we spent so much time with so many troops in Afghanistan? nt

[LeftyMom]

25. Somebody has to mule that stuff.

[loyalsister]

23. Over the past 3 yrs

At least 4 of my friends have lost young men (brothers and sons) to that addiction.

[Bluenorthwest]

66. And about 88,000 Americans die from alcohol abuse each year, O'Malley promotes breweries and

is often photographed in bars, with a bottle, taking a swig and so forth. It strikes me as hypocritical . 'Hey if people die because of this drink I dig, so what, I dig it. But if people die because of a medicine others actually need, fuck those others and their so called need. Build more breweries, restrict pain meds!!!!!'

[loyalsister]

70. That's a fair point

This is definitely disappointing to me. I know people who deal with chronic pain and doctors are actually entirely too cautious and overly suspicious when it comes to pain meds in some cases. People should not have to suffer the way they do.

That "the candidate I'd like to have a beer with" is part of our lexicon because it was a polling question is something to be ashamed of. Overconsumption of alcohol is one of our greatest cultural flaws.

[Bluenorthwest]

71. The internet if full of photos of Marty drinking. 88,000 deaths a year.

Marty says his goal is to reduce overdoes deaths by 25% in 5 years. Other States have already done that using methods Marty does not mention at all. That's a serious problem. If that is his goal, he should rush to embrace what works. He does not. That means his real goal is the process and restrictions he is seeking and not the reduction of harm. This is about lives and deaths. I'm tired of those who swill alcohol and laugh about it and tout the glories of drink carrying on in a puritanical manner about chronic pain patients. Alcohol is a drug. Marty happily promotes it, as many politicians do. It is hypocrisy. When he goes after people with legitimate medical need as his first priority, while refusing to discuss other successful approaches all while tossing back a few at the opening of some new tavern I find it to be hypocrisy of a very unsavory sort.

[Omaha Steve]

26. Thanks for posting

K&R!

OS

[elleng]

36. You're welcome, Steve.

[jhart3333]

29. Let's start by eliminating the drug laws.

I don't use drugs. But I want all drug laws abolished. Only then can we start to get a handle on problems involving addiction, treating it as a public health problem. And the horrific stories, some in this thread, about people in pain being denied adequate pain relief should stop now. DEA needs to be abolished.

[TheFrenchRazor]

43. agreed. nt

[Mnemosyne]

31. My 14yo grandson informed me yesterday that someone died of a heroin od in the house across the

street from his gf's house. This is a rural 'city' in NW Pa, approx. pop. 7500. This is the third or fourth death this year, iirc.

We sadly also have a meth problem. It seems the meth addicts are just eaten alive by it, age 40 yrs. in a month or two. Don't hear of them dying as much as those addicted to opiates.

Heart-breaking.

[blue neen]

37. There is a huge problem in PA.

It is, as you have described, the rural areas.

[Mnemosyne]

73. I can barely stand to drive through town, always see at least one or two and there is no mistaking

the look they have.

My best friend of 25 yrs. ended up buying street opiates when she was cut off her pain maintenence med. about 9 years ago for failing a urine test with cannabis.

I can't see her now.

[leveymg]

39. This is what happens when you place public health in the hands of organized crime.

[ryan_cats]

41. It's

It's a crisis when the well to do white kids have a problem, inner city brothers? Who cares?

Will the powers that be use it to crack down on legitimate pain killer use among those with chronic pain, it's for the children.

[cali]

45. It is much exaggerated. And many duers are clueless about severe chronic pain

[REP]

90. Cannot agree enough

[Lee-Lee]

51. It's been a huge problem for a long time

The current crackdown on prescription medications has more moving to straight heroin as an alternative, but aside from that it's nothing new.


Prescription painkiller abuse and trafficking has been happening forever. As anyone who has worked in an ER how many patients come in with fake symptoms or self-inflicted ones just trying to get fix or get some to sell.

[Marrah_G]

52. it's made it tough to get pain meds for those who need it

I brought my daughter into the hospital when she got a massive headache after a spinal tap. She was left crying in the ER with no pain relief until I angrily stopped a nurse and said "Look, my daughter is NOT a pill addict looking for a fix....she had a spinal tap yesterday and she has a problem with pressure in her brain" That finally made them wake up and get her some meds until they could treat her. It turned out she had a leak in her spinal fluid. This was in Taunton, by the way.

[trillion]

54. Huge problem in Seattle too. 4 out of 6 of my nieces and nephews have fallen into this - all

independently of each other - different families.

[Whiskeytide]

57. Unfortunately, as long as the pharmaceutical ...

... industry doesn't want political and cultural solutions, there won't be any. The anti tobacco movement began decades ago, when it was actually still illegal to buy politicians, and it was still somewhat damaging to a political career to be caught taking bribes. They'll make sure that doesn't happen again.

[Vinca]

58. We live 3 miles from the Interstate highway known as the "heroin highway."

It's a major problem in this area. Not a week goes by that you don't read of a police traffic stop that turns up hundreds of bags of heroin. Burglaries have increased, too. They don't give the cause of "untimely" deaths in the newspaper, but you have to figure some of them are overdoses. There's so much money to be made, I don't know how you get a handle on this, but a big time effort has to be made to do just that.

[kentuck]

59. There has been an epidemic in Eastern Kentucky for more than 20 years.

Many people have died and are still dying every day. They have brought in Feds to try and fight it as a 'crime' problem and it has only gotten worse. Doctors write prescriptions without regard or conscience. It is a terrible blight on our people.

[malaise]

61. What is the link with Afghanistan???

Folks are getting rich!!

[fredamae]

62. When people experieng severe

chronic pain are no longer denied help due to "measures to curb addiction" - When addiction is treated as a matter of health care instead of a crime- When congress and state legislatures stop criminalizing human behavior in order to fill prisons-When every public service includes Comprehensive Harm Reduction Education...
We'll begin to see a Huge reduction of non-medical drug use.

[Bluenorthwest]

65. A moment of irony: Alcohol causes about 88,000 preventable deaths each year. Marty promotes alcohol

""Very few people could get me to throw back a beer at 10 a.m.," O'Malley joked as he toasted the microbrewery's suds with a crowd of locals and business owners.

O'Malley, in town to highlight best practices in economic development, toured the brand new facility, admiring the gleaming copper fermenting kettles, mash tun and other pieces of equipment that turn water, malt, hops and yeast into beer. When it's open, the brewery -- which was once a cooperage, making oak barrels -- is expected to produce about 80 barrels of beer a month, according to owner Bryan Brushmiller."
http://myjourneythroughbeer.blogspot.com/2011/08/governer-martin-omalley-toasts-burley.html

"Drinking too much can harm your health. One in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20–64 years are due to excessive alcohol use.

Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death. This dangerous behavior accounted for approximately 88,000 deaths per year from 2006–2010, and accounted for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20–64 years."
http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcohol-deaths/


It should be pointed out that Martin and others who imbibe do so just for fun, not from a medical need. And yet their pleasure is a poison. Perhaps rather than posing with the toxin and lauding those who manufacture this drug he should seek to strictly limit sales and supervise those who do imbibe?

[Sunlei]

69. you'll hear it again from me first, the poppies are grown in the USA, Canada & Central America

We're better off providing heroin to addicts to start to solve this 'problem' before more become addicted.

Same thing with meth. its sooo addicting, just like heroin and so easy to make.

By the way the drug corps need to provide numbers of Opioid tabs they soldWholesale in America over the past 15 years and lets see where all the blackmarket 'problem' started and charge those sellers with crimes.

[Octafish]

74. Make a law. Make a business.

That's what they said in "Boardwalk Empire," set during Prohibition.

And seeing how much money there is to be made today off pills, smack and who-knows-what-all, the poor kids are considered "collateral damage" in the cost of doing business.

Anyone remember Alfred McCoy?

[lancer78]

78. I know someone

Who takes non-prescribed pill for his RLS (restless leg syndrome). He has been taking them for 2 years yet his daily "habit" is only 20-25 mg. Fortunately, he cant drink because he gets gout attacks easily. My friend says the meds the doctors put him on for the rls dried out his mouth (causing him to lose several teeth). The opioids help him sleep. Not everyone who does this does it to "get high" is all I am saying.

[TalkingDog]

85. Legalize all the things.

Or at least decriminalize them

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/