I知 dependent on narcotics; that doesn稚 mean I知 an addict.

[Ghost in the Machine]

13. As someone who is in pain management, and dependent on opioids to make it through the day,

let me try to give you a little insight.

The law here used to be that your family doctor could prescribe you meds forever. All of a sudden "pain clinics", which were actually pill mills, started popping up everywhere. You go in with a radiologist's report from a recent MRI or Xrays with a diagnosis of "chronic pain", pay $250 - $300 CASH, and a doctor (usually getting kickbacks from a pharmaceutical company) prescribes you onycodone, anywhere from 10mg to 30mg. I have seen, with my own eyes, people LIMP into the clinic with a cane... and once out the door RUNNING to their car with their cellphone to their ear and prescription in hand. A 30mg oxycodone pill has a street value around here from $35 - $40 EACH! Normal monthly prescription? 120 to 180 pills. MANY PEOPLE get them just to sell them. They are defrauding the system and making it harder for legitimate pain patients to get the care they need.

Now, your doctor can prescribe for 3 months, then has to refer you to pain management. Besides opioids, the LEGITIMATE pain management offices also prescribe physical therapy, Epidural Steroid Injections and other forms of pain relief.

I have had 2 major neck surgeries, have a syrinx in my spinal cord in the Cervical region... a condition called Syringomyelia, major nerve damage from the 2 surgeries and 8 or 9 bulging, herniated or dried out discs in my T-Spine and L-Spine, along with nerve impingement, degenerative disc disease and a few synovial tears in some discs, which is worse than a ruptured (or "slipped" disc).

I only go to State Approved pain clinics that take insurance now. I didn't like going to the first one that I went to, as I figured out by the 2nd visit that they were a pill mill. They were shut down, and the operators arrested, a month after I quit going there.

People still get pain medication fraudulently, and they sell it on the streets. "Addicts" will sell or trade everything they have just to get a fix, then will resort to robbing/stealing if they have to. People who are "dependent" take their medications as prescribed, don't sell their pills, and do not engage in drug-seeking activities.

You sign a contract with pain management that you will not try to obtain pain medications from any other doctor, you submit to a urine screen and pill count on each visit, and you are subject to be called in at any time for a random drug test/pill count. I, personally, have no problem with that, and have even turned in one of my own family members who was going just to get the pills to sell.

I would NEVER sell my pills, period. The main reason being A: I *need* them to be able to function without pain. B: It's not worth it anyways because if you get caught, it is a FELONY count for EACH PILL, C: I am on Disability and Medicare, so I could be charged with Medicare Fraud, and lose everything I have because while on Disability, you can lose your income just for being CHARGED with a crime that has a sentence of 1 year or more! That's right... you don't even have to be CONVICTED yet to lose your income!

I think that I am starting to ramble, sorry, but I hope that you understood what I was trying to relay. Just like anything else in the world, in the world of pain relief there are some bad apples who ruin it for all of us.

Peace,

Ghost