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Editorial: Plague of opioids
The Boston Herald ^ | 03-20-18 | Tom Shattuck

Posted on 03/20/2018 12:47:38 PM PDT by calvincaspian

The opioid crisis is a sinister scourge, racking up casualties across every demographic. The harrowing stories of families who’ve watched their children deteriorate and die are far too common.

Opioids took the lives of more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.” A full decade of losses at that level would exceed the number of American soldiers killed in World War II.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: newhampshire; opioidcrisis; opioids; trump; wod
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To: papertyger

Pain is an expression of the problem. A symptom. Sometimes there is little you can do to stop it, but often there are treatments to alleviate the condition causing the pain.

And with Opiods, coming off the dose will make everything feel worse than it did before. They are NOT a good method for pain control in the vast majority of cases.


41 posted on 03/20/2018 6:40:43 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: Hawthorn

How about we figure out where the drugs are hitting the open market? As I said above, the Urgent Care docs were pretty quick to try to force me a script when I had a thumb issue. However, I doubt that one bottle of pills was going to lead me to herion.

But local cops are finding people with MASSIVE amounts of Oxy, legally made, that they got from somewhere. Most don’t have a script.

There are a lot of people selling their pills second hand.


42 posted on 03/20/2018 6:44:21 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: redgolum
And with Opiods, coming off the dose will make everything feel worse than it did before. They are NOT a good method for pain control in the vast majority of cases.

Bull$h!t.

I've been there, and done that, and I can tell you from first hand experience you don't know what you're talking about.

43 posted on 03/20/2018 6:44:37 PM PDT by papertyger (Bulverism: it's not just for liberals anymore.)
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To: thesharkboy
I am a month out of total knee replacement. The pain is making me unable to sleep and rehab is the most pain I have felt. They gave me a prescription of percoset which I am trying to stretch out. Got a call into the dr to help me with the two weeks left of rehab.
44 posted on 03/20/2018 6:56:34 PM PDT by KYGrandma (The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home.....)
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To: redgolum
Pain is an expression of the problem. A symptom.

What an asinine statement. Take my case for example, would my legs still carry me without any cartilage in the acetabular joint: sure, but the PAIN is what prevented me from being able to do so.

And I don't know how familiar you are with hip replacements, but they don't schedule those things for your day off, or do them in a urgent care clinic.

The bottom line is you're pontificating on what others can do about debilitating pain with only the barest inkling about the efficacy or implications of doing them.

45 posted on 03/20/2018 7:05:10 PM PDT by papertyger (Bulverism: it's not just for liberals anymore.)
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To: KYGrandma

I thank God my surgeon at Mayo was a forward thinker and put a spinal on me for my second hip replacement. Apparently, the pain response from such procedures actually inhibits the healing process. Getting it removed sure sucked, but my recovery went much better than my first procedure.


46 posted on 03/20/2018 7:13:00 PM PDT by papertyger (Bulverism: it's not just for liberals anymore.)
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To: Obadiah

Don’t forget the cheapest scourge of all...heroin. Most of the deaths are from heroin laced with fentanyl. But no...Daddy gov doesn’t want to admit that they can’t control the heroin trade...


47 posted on 03/20/2018 7:49:30 PM PDT by blu (Save us the time of explaining the links...read the article...unless you're Lazamatz.)
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To: Obadiah
Exactly. Rather then deal with addiction on an individual basis, let's just lump everyone and all pain relievers into one big group and everybody gets screwed.
48 posted on 03/21/2018 12:04:31 AM PDT by jmacusa ("Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: papertyger

Morphine tabs/caps whether IR or ER “do not” come in 5 mg. 15 mg is the smallest dose. 5 mg like percocet/oxycodone. I highly doubt anything other then feeling tired/pain relief on morphine until after 7-10 days. Kind of like gabapentin regarding being tired at first.


49 posted on 03/21/2018 2:21:35 AM PDT by Lumper20
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To: tuffydoodle

“I always ask that question to the gun grabbers. Thousands more people are killed every year by drunk drivers, much more than random gunman. But ain’t nobody gonna do anything about that, too many boozehounds that gotta get their drunk on.”

You’d have a point if Jesus turned sticks into guns; instead, He turned water into wine.


50 posted on 03/21/2018 4:38:36 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

That makes it ok then.


51 posted on 03/21/2018 4:51:38 AM PDT by tuffydoodle (A moral wrong cannot be a Civil Right.)
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To: tuffydoodle

Well, He didn’t turn the jars into cars - so He didn’t make drunk driving OK.


52 posted on 03/21/2018 4:53:52 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: NobleFree
You can't conclude from one data point (China) what is the "natural progression" - and the available evidence from the USA when opiates were legal indicates the opposite.

You are going to dishonestly assert that "China" represents one data point? You are going to ignore the millions of people involved, and the nearly Century under which they suffered from drugs imported into their country, and call it "ONE DATA POINT" ?

And then you are going to use the pathetically small sample of drug users in the early history of the US as evidence that drugs were not a problem?

You are ignoring the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who suffered from the "Soldiers disease" after the civil war, and who were slowly building a demand for opium imports into the US before officials started recognizing this threat of drug addiction in the 1890s.

We were on the early phase of that drug addiction curve when officials took steps to ban them. *THAT* is why drugs didn't develop into the problem they became in China. China wasn't having a serious problem for the first few decades either, but by the time drug imports had been going on for 70 years, China was in a very bad condition. It was collapsing. This is why the much smaller Japan was able to invade and conquer it.

53 posted on 03/21/2018 6:37:19 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: calvincaspian

22 Veterans commit Suicide DAILY because their illnesses can’t be cured, treated any other way than Opioids. They felt the sting 3 months before the Public did.

Veterans who had a modicum of life now are bed or wheelchair ridden. Marine Robert Rose JR https://www.facebook.com/groups/vets.fight.back/
You don’t have to be a Veteran to join Robert’s fight, just a concerned citizen on how our Veterans are being treated and Chronic Pain Patients.

Neither US nor State Congress recognize that some illnesses are NOT treatble in any other fashion.
In 1 day in Tennessee 308 Pain Clinics shut their doors, other states soon followed. That leaves TN with 66 Pain Clinics for the entire state. Most are run by APN, PA under a GP or Internist license, not a Specialist in your health condition. What do they know about Neuropathy, Fibromyalgia, EDS, Lupus, and a host of other disease that cause extreme pain. All they know is that some PIG PHARMA said it will treat it. BULL HOCKEY!

I am a Intractable Pain Patient, which is worse than a Chronic Pain Patient. There are no cures, no surgeries, only 1 Benzo Valium to treat the Neuropathy and Fibromyalgia and Gastropresis spasms. With GP you can’t afford to take a real Opioid except as a rare use.

What the JAMA REPORT DIDN’T FIND https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/3/10/what-the-krebs-opioid-study-didnt-find

10 Myths of Opioid Addiction (Roger Chriss has EDS and he knows all to well what the havoc of removing pain meds causes)
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/12/24/10-myths-about-the-opioid-crisis

Dear DC why are you Torturing Pain Patients https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/06/22/dear-cdc-why-are-you-torturing-pain-patients-11469

He is suing US Rep Phil Roe http://nationalpainreport.com/vet-with-chronic-pain-denied-access-to-his-congressman-8833959.html


54 posted on 03/21/2018 6:58:34 AM PDT by GailA (Ret. SCPO wife: suck it up buttercups it's President Donald Trump!)
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To: drunknsage

And China’s is more potent and comes in Via USPS and Cargo ships, Mexico is the #1 supplier of Heroin and Cocaine. Some of it from Mexico, some from M.E. which is used to fund terrorism.

RED RIBBON CAMPAIGN FOR CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS. We urge you to call both state and fed congress critters.
http://www.painpatientscoalition.com/2018Schedule.html

VA http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20180315/opioid-prescriptions-cut-34-percent-at-truman-va

Unlike our DUMBA$$ politicians we actually LOOK at CURRENT FACTS, not a Decade old set of Data.

Even terminal Cancer patients who are supposed to be in a ‘protected’ group are being DENIED adequate pain meds.


55 posted on 03/21/2018 7:06:38 AM PDT by GailA (Ret. SCPO wife: suck it up buttercups it's President Donald Trump!)
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To: kearnyirish2

Whatever, just keep making excuses. Whatever works.


56 posted on 03/21/2018 7:06:56 AM PDT by tuffydoodle (A moral wrong cannot be a Civil Right.)
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To: Obadiah

BINGO! And the combo of drugs. Boiling’s kid had 2 forms of Fen, Herion, MMJ, Xanax in his system, the day before he was on a Cocaine Bender.

Only the Xanax is legal, and it comes with a Black Box from the FDA on SUICIDE. It not toward themselves then at others. Parkland kid was on Physce drugs, all have such Black Box warnings.

Even Cymbalta has it, ADD, ADHD drugs. How did that effect the brain?


57 posted on 03/21/2018 7:11:28 AM PDT by GailA (Ret. SCPO wife: suck it up buttercups it's President Donald Trump!)
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To: Obadiah

Read just 1 horror story about NOT using a Opioid post surgery. Even their STATS LIE!

https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/

This started 12/29, STILL IN GASTRO HE$$. Because Dilauded does NOT treat GASTRO SPASMS. IDIOTS!

Taking away 1 med Valium which is just a class 4, but controls 4 health issues.

Insert congress critters name: Use your own story. This one is Mine. Please send your health care Representative or come yourself to listen to the Other side of the story, besides those who have their own interest invested like Klodeny and Kreb. They are using out of date data. Pain Patients and the advocates of our 6 million community couldn’t afford the $25,000 fee to attend the CDC hearing, we were SHUT OUT. 22 Veterans a day are committing Suicide over the forced withdrawl of their pain medications, for contitions that have no other treatment that Pain Control. Uncontrolled Pain also causes Hypertension if not treated can KILL.

Getting the facts right about the opioid crisis is essential. And the claim that the United States consumes 80% of the world’s supply of opioid medication — while having only 5% of the world’s population — is incorrect.

The truth is that Americans consumed only about 30% of the world’s opioid medication in 2015. And the U.S. has about 4.4% of the world’s population. That’s still a lot, but nowhere near “80/5.”

As Politifact notes while debunking McKaskill’s “80/5” claim, “while the United States is clearly the largest consumer of opioids, it, at most, accounts for roughly 30 percent of global consumption.”

We want our own Specialist treating us, not some PA, APN or GP who runs a Pain Clinic that does not know how to treat Rare diseases or multiple health conditions that cause pain.. On 1 day 308 Pain Clinics in Tennessee were Shut down, that does not include those of other states.

Pain is a misunderstood issue as there are several types, Intractable pain, also known as Intractable Pain Disease or IP, is a severe, constant pain that is not curable by any known means and which causes a bed or house-bound state and early death if not adequately treated, usually with opioids and/or interventional procedures. Chronic pain is often defined as any pain lasting more than 12 weeks. Whereas acute pain is a normal sensation that alerts us to possible injury, wound, broken bone, labor.

I fall in the first category, There is NO surgical, or medication that can aleivate the pain. I don’t take Opioids as I have 5 Gastric conditions, caused by Osteoarthritis drugs which are Black Boxed by the FDA for both GI/Heart Disease. Why does the FDA allow drugs they label as very Dangerous allow them to stay on the market doing incacuable life long harm to people like me. I have both. Along with Neuropathy, Fibromyalgia, Osteoprosis, Enlarged Heart with tiny Mitral Valve leak, the Gastropresis and Barrett’s Esopogus Hypothyroid are NOT curable, Nor is the spinal Degeneration. I’ve been stable for a decade on Valium for Fibromyalgia and Neuropathy, until an Under Educated APN would not refill my perscription because she freard losing her liscense, even though that was not actual fact. CDC guidelines are NOT law. And Tennessee Law states I can be treated with Valium 1 month script with 5 refills. Since being forced to Cold Turkey off what was controlling adequately very painful conditions, I’ve had 1 drug reaction to Klonopin 1 mg which is MORE addictived than Valium and 2 ER trips for Gastropresis spasms. Followup with my Neurologist revealed my spine has deteriated more, there is now Calcification in my Lumbar beside the other damage there. Just Cold Turkey, taking away one medication caused a Drug reaction and 2 ER trips with 2 Wrongly diagnosied CT’s, 1 Gastro visit, Barium X-Ray, Bacterial Breathe test that took 5 hours, 2 trips to the Neuroligist, 2 MRI’s. The last ER Trip I was in Stage 2 Hypertension that overode my Cardizem. They didn’t monitor my heart until I hit 167/110. Hypertension untreated KILLS.

All because of a scared APN taking for Gospel Inacurate CDC BIASED guidelines as law, and Inogrance of Tennesse State Law.

Human Watch is now involved in the FAKE CRISIS.


58 posted on 03/21/2018 7:23:59 AM PDT by GailA (Ret. SCPO wife: suck it up buttercups it's President Donald Trump!)
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To: GailA

Thank you for that report. That’s what concerns me, this hysteria with wholly inaccurate and misleading statistics.

Yes, heroin is another opioid frequently thrown in as part of the “opioid crisis”. There is a complete difference between an opioid concern and an illegal drug crisis. What we actually have is the latter.

What I don’t quite grasp is why. What is the reason for lumping in illegal opioids and illegal opioid use with legitimate opioid medical use? What’s the end game here?

Right now I am very aware that all prescribing authorities are very concerned about writing any script for any opioid. They are concerned they will receive unnecessary critical professional review. Therefore, they are unable to correctly treat a patient out of fear their license may somehow get tarnished through an unwarranted critical review.

Once again, honest people will suffer and not receive otherwise appropriate medical treatment as a result of the increasingly shrill tone that’s been sweeping the country. Similar to the results following some mass shooting, there are always those who want to crack down on legitimate, honest gun owners in order to vicariously punish the criminal and mentally ill.

I do think that the politicians are riding this wave as one of those wholesome type issues perceived to be something no one can be against. Being anti-illegal drug is great. Creating a false hysteria where honest people are going to suffer is not.


59 posted on 03/21/2018 7:48:59 AM PDT by Obadiah (Truth is hate speech to those who hate truth.)
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To: papertyger

Quitting cigarettes was hard. I think because it’s a lifestyle and your very body movements are involved. I would move my hand and think of a cigarette.

I finally quit when FR was new to me and my computer system was slow. I’d be involved in a hot thread and I couldn’t be bothered to take my hands of the keyboard long enough to smoke. Thank you FR, lol.


60 posted on 03/21/2018 10:15:09 AM PDT by donna (Chelsea Manning is Obama's legacy.)
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