great story in the NYT today re Nebraska doctor having to tell his chronic pain patients he must

[ellennelle]

16. um, hold on here

i'm a healthcare provider. in MA. the epidemic is overwhelming, so much so the legislature has just passed ground-breaking laws to curb things.

and it most definitely needed to be done. seriously.

i have seen more patients than i can count who suffered some injury or back pain or or post-surgery or whatever, and the doctors handed out the oxy's like candy. so not kidding you; there is pathetic follow-up on these cases, and the docs just keep refilling till they get nervous their patients might get addicted, and then just cut them off.

yup; cut. them. off. cold turkey. their patients are so freaked, and in withdrawal on top of their pain, they start looking for it online and on the street, and then they switch to heroin because it's cheaper, and ....so it goes.

those of you who dismiss this as a problem of 'addicts' and 'pushers' do not have all the facts. and one of those facts might end up being that this article was 'pushed' by the drug companies. think about that; not only does it serve their profiteering purposes, but they have the power to do that at the NYTimes. and sadly, we have seen too often - and as recently as just yesterday - the grey lady can be a whore.

what is the real shame is that there is such resistance - most notably from big pharma - to legalizing and supporting medical marijuana. there are alternatives to opiates, and opiates - imho - should only be administered to patients while they are in the hospital, and can be observed as they are tapered off and transitioned to less addictive and gentler alternatives.

this epidemic did not exist prior to the candy store oxy proliferation; think about that. seriously, that is the tell as to where the fault lies in this nightmare. and it was predictable; this has come up time and again in conversations i've had for years with non-prescription doctors (i.e., phd's in mental health), and we all saw it as a nightmare ready to explode.

voila. don't let this story fool you; there is money afoot, and big pharma is on it.