Do you think opiate pain medications should be outlawed for noncancer sufferers as in chronic pain?

[Aristus]

147. No.

And I say this as a medical provider who is trying to keep my chronic pain patients away from narcotics with a whip and a chair.

There are so many reasons why narcotics are not appropriate for long-term management of chronic pain: addiction, tolerance, constipation, respiratory depression, narcotic hyperalgesia, etc. Not to mention that it simply masks the symptom (pain) rather than treating the underlying cause.

Still, as with reducing the number of smokers, outlawing the addictive substance in question is ultimately less effective than changing the culture surrounding its use.

We didn't outlaw cigarettes. We simply banned smoking in just about any place a person might want to light up. As a result, the societal percentage of habitual smokers has decreased substantially since the 1970's.

Now we just need to change the culture surrounding the prescribing and taking of narcotic medications.