The Horrible Side-Effect of the War on Opioid Addiction [View all]

[MineralMan]

Yes, opioid addiction is a bad thing. Far too many people are addicted to such drugs, often without any medical need to be taking them. And yes, we need to find a way to decrease the number of addicted people. But, there's a real problem that is not going away:

Millions of people who suffer from severe chronic pain are caught up in the middle of this war. They need those pain medications to make their lives even somewhat livable. Their pain will not go away, but the fight against addiction is slowly, but surely, taking their medication away from them.

Doctors are under heavy pressure not to prescribe opioid pain meds. So much so that additional paperwork and hassle follows every prescription. Even when they know that a particular patient absolutely needs the medications to dull severe, life-altering pain, the pressure from government and others to decrease the number of prescriptions for it continues to grow.

There has to be a way found to make such medications available to those who suffer from intractable, unremitting pain, while still working on dealing with addiction by those who do not have such pain. Those who suffer are not responsible for the addiction, and should not have to suffer for that addiction problem. But, increasingly, they are being forced to suffer, due to efforts to reduce the number of those who are addicted.

I know people in that group, whose quality of life without adequate relief from pain is horrendous. Some can no longer get that relief any longer.