Legislation would mandate check before writing prescriptions
I am aware of the legislation. Last year congress was debating to remove some pain med’s completely from the market.
I receive my med’s from the VA, and before prescribing I was asked to sign three contractual forms informing me I could be drug tested at their request on any given day. They also informed me there is in place in Tn. a data base on pain meds’ to prevent DR. shopping. I signed the documents, I have no problem with this. As I stated, “I take as prescribed by the DR”. I see the drug abuse with-in my home district and it isn’t pleasant in any form.
I too take a drug on the hit list and have for 17 years. I take Xanax for some sensory processing disorders & related seizure control. It helps too tone down my sensory system. It took me almost two years too find a doctor who would agree to writing it for me long term thanks to the scaremongering. My wife has taken same medication for 26 years safely.
By the book protocol medications nearly killed her and me because protocol medication was antidepressants which to some persons like me and her can have the same effect as taking LSD.
I went to a V.A. clinic to keep in their system for hearing aids. A doctor there who did not know me from Adam nor any of my history as such within 5 minutes wanted to immediately change my medication. I said NO! I told him how long I had taken it safely and it worked just fine. I was not going through the hell again I had gone through earlier. Government is treading into an area where it can do the most harm which is in a doctors exam room second guessing their decisions.
Government uses scaremongering to create an artificial crisis. The drugs they mention many of them in 1880 were sole OTC no prescriptions needed. They were either sold in stores or occurred in nature. Prohibitions and the War On Drugs and everything else has created major crime and corruption the same way prohibition of alcohol did in the 1930's.
The prohibitions make the illicit use the forbidden fruit so to speak. My position on the W.O.D. over the past couple of years has evolved to legalization so the market falls out of the illicit drug trade and the bad stuff made by Bubba like METH is stopped. METH Labs are also a by-product of the War ON Drugs. The War on Drugs to try and stop the impossible has evolved to a War ON You and Me with our Constitutional Rights & Protections taking a distant back seat and the Fourth Amendment protection becoming Nil. In the mean time it has not slowed down illicit manufacturing nor even the illicit drug flow from Mexico from the Cartels who love our W.O.D..
A little bit more interesting history. If you look back in history drugs like Cocaine have always been available and were even consumed in the time of the nations founding. They had pricey little {snuff} containers in the form if rings, small tins, etc which basically held a dosage. In much the same way alcohol was used by man for mankind's entire history the U.S. prohibition made consumption skyrocket. Bars popped up everywhere. The stuff on the streets many times was not safe. Persons like Joe Kennedy SR made a fortune and did many others like Chicago Mobs.
In today's world and in our state an LEO on his gut feeling can confiscate your personal property if drugs are suspect. This can simply mean a dog hits and you have a substantial amount of cash on you which is also not illegal. Government in the name of the W.O.D. can take it and you pay hell getting it back. A couple of counties near Knoxville developed bad reputations using this practice.
In no way do I advocate, condone, nor encourage anyone to use drugs other than for medical need. But if a persons wants to waste their brain by abuse of such there is no law short of permanent lock away that can stop it and it doesn't even work in prison where despite government control usage and trade is rampant. If government can't even stop it in guarded prisons why should any reasons person seriously believe government can stop it otherwise? It can't but governments including federal, state, and local, are making a vast fortune on taking property including cash, vehicles, and even homes all in the name of the War on Drugs.
The War on Drugs is an illicit partnership a gentleman's business agreement of cat and mouse between cartels and government that reaches all the way into the top offices of government. Next will be persons who dare mention this is happening will be persecuted by the government as well or placed on a list in a database. I was the one in the comments section of the article who posted The words of Ronald Reagan come to mind. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' and this one "I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." Ben Franklin IIRC is credited with a saying about ones exchanging liberty for security deserve neither.