Heroin deaths double after painkiller crackdown

[Horse with no Name]

63. I didn't start this thread

I simply gave an opinion on what I have personally seen in my practice as a nurse for 25 years as well as the addiction issue in the area that I live.

I am simply not talking about chronic pain and if you looked upthread to the very first comment that I made I said "It is a bullshit move that will leave lots of people suffering". That is said from a general and overall position.

I then proceeded to respond to ONE comment on my personal feelings from what I have seen and then all of the sudden, I am some type of evil nasty person who has no empathy towards people with chronic pain. You don't know me and you simply have no idea what you are talking about.

I live in a small area and several doctors in this area have fucking gone to JAIL for drug trafficking. A local doctor used to admit his girlfriend to the hospital for Demerol drug holidays--that is, until she died of an overdose leaving three small children (one of whom found her stone cold in the garage after school) and he went to prison. So please do not pretend to know where I am coming from, because you obviously do not.

I couldn't even get a prescription filled in this area for codeine cough syrup for a sick child. The doctor in Dallas was mortified at that. I am speaking from MY experience and mine alone.

I have friends who went to these docs and were given this shit like candy and then became addicted. Everyone KNEW these docs were their dealers. It was common knowledge. The patients lost their jobs, their homes, their families, their friends...and everything else they could. One lost her life. These were NOT chronic pain issues. These were people who had a small ache or pain that could have been handled with a lesser agent, but instead were given narcotics and then became addicted. Totally unnecessary use of the medication.
However...THESE are the patients and the doctors that got the laws changed. Not the chronic pain sufferers. Since I happen to see this on an everyday basis in the area that I live, that is perspective that I have from it.

In our area, they formed a coalition of hospitals, doctors and pharmacies and it is next to impossible to get stuff filled because the local doctors have stopped cold turkey--leaving addicts without and sending all of their chronic pain patients to Pain Management doctors. This was done to directly combat the overall issue--and if you REALLY need something for legitimate pain or suffering, it will take the local pharmacies 2-3 days to get it and if you REALLY need it, you have to leave the area.

I cannot pretend to speak about how it works elsewhere. But, this is how it works where I live.