Little Mini-rant on prescription painkillers...

[hunter]

62. Addiction is a major public health problem and ought to be treated as such.

Opiates, alcohol, amphetamines, tobacco...

Continuity of care is very important. Yep, there needs to be supervision by a single medical professional for anyone suffering a severe addiction.

But it ought to be easier for the addict to have a single source in some kind of mildly supervised and non-coercive environment, in no discomfort and making progress away from their addiction, in a way that removes any motivation to obtain the drug they are addicted to from multiple sources.

Sadly, our society does not treat addicts with any kind of compassion and largely regards addiction as a moral failure of the individual rather than a public health problem.

As a side effect of these attitudes many chronic pain patients suffer unnecessarily because they are denied effective medications that are very safe with mild side effects when used appropriately.

I had a prescription for Celebrex at one time. It was pushed as the miracle NSAID that didn't eat one's guts. But it eventually it did eat my guts, just like ibuprofen, it simply took a little longer to have that effect. Of course Pfizer knew that, but left the longer term studies on the shelf. That's the kind of problems chronic pain patients deal with.

My guts are a mess and I've now got Tinnitus.

My own chronic pain problems are fairly mild, perhaps a consequence of physical abuse I subjected myself to when young (running extreme distances, working in warehouses and moving furniture, falling off cliffs, jumping out of moving cars, bicycle accidents, etc., and maybe the steroids I was occasionally prescribed for severe asthma.) But this chronic pain does interfere with my sleep, making me crazier than I already am. But my own experience has made me despise NSAIDS, and acetaminophen which is poison and seems to be added to prescription hydrocodone and is sold over the counter, seemingly for the express purpose of killing opiate and alcohol addicts.

The "war on drugs" mentality has harmed many innocent people, including those unfortunate people whose personal biochemistry and social situation greatly increases the odds they will become addicted to some drug.