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

[Ghost in the Machine]

151. I'm in the same boat with you here...

Pain of course increased but I'm a stay at home dad with older kids so I can handle that part. If I had to go to work I could not do it.

I was in pain management for 4 years, 2 and a half of them taking 6 30mg roxicodones a day, the last year and a half I was upped to 2 40mg Oxymorphones (generic Opana) a day and 2 roxi 30's a day for breakthrough pain. I NEVER got high from them, just stopped hurting, but I build a high tolerance pretty quickly. I was dependent on the pills to even be able to get out of bed sometimes, but also realized I was addicted too. If I slept past my normal time to take them, I woke up with feelings of withdrawals, and that was just in 2 or 3 HOURS. After 2 months of asking my doctor to get me off of them, with no avail, I took matters into my own hands and quit cold turkey... with a backup plan.

I got an oz. of some cronic green and smoked a big fat joint! People may not believe it, but before I even finished the joint, I could feel a wave of tingling going through my brain, like cells firing up again, and I immediately felt like my old self again before I got on the opioids. I barely had any withdrawal symptoms and I'm on day 65 of being opioid free. Like you, I still live in pain every day and can't work, but on the really bad days I just smoke about half a joint and it does the trick.

My way may not work for everyone, but it did for me. It is way past time to legalize cannabis so people can choose to treat themselves without being criminals.

Congrats to you for quitting and I hope you can keep it up. I have also found that diet and light exercise (whatever your body will allow you to do) helps. I try to walk a little every day, and bought an AB-Lounger for sit-ups. I've had 2 multi-level lamenectomies on my neck, from C-4 down to T-3, so I'm not allowed to do push-ups, pull-ups or anything that would put pressure on my neck, as I still have tethered cord syndrome at the C-4 level. Part of my spinal cord has attached itself to the vertebrae and if it tears loose I'll drop where I stand, paralyzed from the neck down.

Peace,

Ghost