Posted on 12/17/2018 11:04:47 AM PST by Kaslin
There is a strange dichotomy taking place in society today. On the one hand, laws against marijuana are being eliminated. People who abuse pot are now able to feed their addiction with an overly generous supply of the drug. For example, in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal, users can purchase up to 2.5 ounces every two weeks. This is enough to be stoned every day. Once you have a prescription, you can refill it for an entire year without going back to renew the prescription. It’s easy to get a prescription in most states that have legalized medical marijuana, just inform a doctor you have pain. And if you live in a state like California that has legalized recreational marijuana, there aren’t even any limits on how much you can buy (just how much you can have on hand).
In contrast, opioids, which are commonly prescribed for chronic pain and have been legal for years (with the exception of heroin and some fentanyl) are becoming increasingly restricted. Legitimate chronic pain sufferers who depend on them to reduce their pain are finding themselves going days without any medication or undermedicated as a result of the new crackdown. It began because people were overdosing on opioids.
By October of this year, 33 states had passed laws limiting opioid prescriptions. They limit the supply a doctor may prescribe to seven days or less. This exponentially increases problems with timely refilling prescriptions. One chronic pain sufferer complained, “The insurance companies are lying to their own subscribers in the Prior Auth Dept, ignoring, transferring to dead lines, long appeals that go nowhere, on & on….” It also means more co-pays. Some states are now requiring doctors and pharmacists to take a course on opioids.
Many states have limited the maximum dose as well. Federal opioid prescribing guidelines recommend doctors use caution in prescribing above 50 MME/day. But many patients need 90 MME/day or higher. In Arizona, patients are limited to 90 MME/day. There are exceptions for some types of illnesses — but not chronic pain. For those sufferers, they can only receive a higher dose if their doctor consults with a board-certified pain specialist.
One woman in Arizona who suffers from chronic pain said her opioid dose was lowered from 100 MME/day to 90 MME/day as a result of the new laws. She said her pain has been "terrible" ever since. "It just hurts," she said. "I don't want to walk, I pretty much don't want to do anything."
Two medical associations in Arizona warned before the law was passed, “We strongly oppose putting any kind of dose-strength limitation in state law. ... Every patient is unique and there is no universally accepted threshold for what is acceptable for every situation. Some complex pain patients can be properly cared for and managed by appropriate providers with higher dosages that allow them to manage pain and be active members of society and our economy.”
Another new law requires pharmacists to check and make sure patients aren’t doctor hopping — doubling up on prescriptions. Any accidental overlap between prescriptions hurts the patient, who is humiliated at the pharmacy when caught. Senior citizens are treated by pharmaceutical staff like common criminals.
Doctors risk sanctions if they don’t comply with the new laws. As a result, fewer doctors are prescribing opioids. This is making it more difficult for patients to find doctors. After the laws were passed, doctors reported “feeling pressure to lower patient doses, even for patients who have been on stable regimens of opioids for years without trouble.”
Dr. Julian Grove, president of the Arizona Pain Society, says, "A lot of practitioners are reducing opioid medications, not from a clinical perspective, but more from a legal and regulatory perspective for fear of investigation. No practitioner wants to be the highest prescriber." Even doctors that specialize in pain management are feeling pressure to reduce dosages.
Psychiatrist Sally Satel, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says the problem traces back to guidelines put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016. The guidelines were not meant to apply to pain specialists, nor were they to be applied as a blanket policy to every patient. "There is no mandate to reduce doses on people who have been doing well," Satel said.
Ironically, chronic pain sufferers are told to switch to medical marijuana to ease their pain — but it doesn’t work for everyone’s pain. A recent Australian study found that marijuana does little for pain.
The reality, according to the National Pain Report, is “America’s so-called ‘opioid epidemic’ is caused by street drugs (some of them diverted prescription drugs) rather than by prescriptions made by doctors to chronic pain patients.” More people die from illegal opioids than prescription opioids. Opioid prescriptions were already decreasing before the crackdown started. In Arizona, prescriptions decreased every year since 2013, a 10 percent decrease total. &
And just because a few doctors overprescribed opioids does not mean everyone should be treated like a dangerous addict at risk of overdosing. One size does not fit all. Someone who has been taking a higher dosage of prescription opioids for years without incident should be allowed to continue.
Over 11 percent of the population suffers from chronic pain. It is cruel and bad medical science to prevent this segment from the population from getting the only relief that works for many of them. The laws need to be changed to allow those legitimately suffering to access adequate amounts of prescription opioids, without risk to their doctor or pharmacist. It makes no sense as we’re relaxing the laws prohibiting marijuana.
Your wife is fortunate to have discovered Cannabis for pain relief and I am happy for her. I am one of those people for whom Cannabis actually increases perceived pain, even feeling pain where I don’t normally, so it doesn’t work for everyone! However, I have not recently had major, chronic pain like your wife does — maybe it would work then.
Once the pain becomes bad enough, I suspect every FReeper will choose opioid addiction over incapacitation.
If that disturbs you, consider that there are millions of functional opioid addicts who are not curled up in a corner babbling incoherently, but lead happy, productive lives.
So if you smoke weed and you come up hot on a random urinalysis you lose your pain meds for 3-months; or you test positive for anything controlled you lose your pain meds.... three straight months of urinalysis before a new prescription. Places like VA just refuse to issue you any future meds if you come up positive once.
I hope the VA stops the State-by-State Medical Pot stuff and just it to everyone - if you can take in DC, California or Colorado and the VA is ok with it there, they should be fine with it Nation-wide - I understand the difference between Federal and State laws, but if the VA recognizes any State's laws as legal for Weed but the controlling law is the Federal Govt, then they can't allow it -but they do where it is legal by the State but not the Feds.
If Vicodin it is Hydrocodine, and if it is Percocet it is Oxycodone. Opium variants both, but lumped together with the pain pills.
I thought she nailed it...but that’s just me.
Ditto
LOL
I worked for 28 years prisons. Almost everyone of the u mates smoked pot. NONE of them were psychotic because of it. I would include a significant percentage of the employees. Lastly, myself and close friends and neighbors. Odd tat this effect didn’t;t show up in my sample pf over 15,000.
You are hitting on it. This "crisis" is not real. The government wants you to believe it's doctors treating patients and writing scripts when they shouldn't. That is a lie and is not happening to anywhere near the level we are being led to believe with the governments fake numbers.
Why would the government want to lie about drug overdoses and blame it on doctors? Many reasons. One being to cover for their intentional open border that is providing a pipeline for illegal drugs. Second is "control" of doctors down to the treatment level. Why do they want that? The government wants control of what treatments doctors prescribe so they can control the costs of healthcare. If government can keep doctors from effectively treating costly patients with chronic pain those people will die sooner and thus save money. Down the road when chronic pain and other conditions treated by opioids that make life livable for many the evil leftists will be there to provide the solution, assisted death.
This may sound far fetched but it's not, it's already happening.
You and me both, brother!
I’ve always found it strange how conservatives profess to want “limited government” and “government out of healthcare,” and yet fall in line slavering like Pavlov’s dogs whenever the War on Drugs is mentioned.
This is not only bad policy; it is the equivalent of torture in many cases. I’d like to see every politician and bureaucrat who pushes this contract a painful chronic illness and be denied pain medication.
Btw, I once heard the Immanis parasite worm can grow up to 5 feet inside the human body. One way doctors remove it is to place the patient on his stomach, prop open his mouth, and place a piece of raw meat in front of the mouth. When the parasite starts to exit the mouth, the physician grabs it and literally pulls it out of the patients.
That database predates Trump.
Thank You for sharing snowtigger.
I worked for 28 years....
I suppose THC is like alcohol in that you build up a tolerance. When it became legal in Colorado lots of new users tried it and got some huge doses with edibles. I think these are the ones with the biggest problems. A lot of people get in trouble driving high and get involved in a wreck. I suppose the ones that are in denial whether pot or alcohol are the most dangerous ones.
About every 4 months for my drug testing. So no lemon muffins with poppy seeds for me.
Opioids include heroin a drug that has been implicated in accidentally OD since the beginning.
Opioid deaths include suicides. At least half if gun deaths are any guide.
As sad as these deaths are, my response is : So what?
Some people are more prone to psychosis if there drink or do drugs.
70% of OD’s are from Heroin/Fenatayl laced.
3.9% of recent Suicides are from Intractable Pain Patients, this figure is UP.
Meth is the #1 OD drug.
This Marine Col committed suicide in the VA parking lot sitting on his medical records. DENIED adequate pain medication.
https://www.usmclife.com/2018/12/marine-colonel-pilot-takes-his-own-life-in-va-parking-lot-while-sitting-on-his-military-records/?fbclid=IwAR1moPWTA3V_aq-XWhNnNU5F7sUqoL73krsnKdf-cgMBeqVHt_OwatOBhLc
IF you use the words CHRONIC PAIN you use the WRONG word. It is INTRACTABLE PAIN IP IS A MEDICAL DISEASE! GOOGLE the meaning. OPIOIDS are Prescriptions meds authorized by Doctors at the right level. ILLICIT DRUGS IS the CORRECT WORD for ILLEGAL DRUGS.
I’m a INTRACTABLE PAIN PATIENT. I’m 70 my health was DESTROYED by FDA APPROVED Drugs for Osteoarthritis, Spine destroyed by the Cortisone, Predisone, and Steroid shots. Those OA drugs Destroyed my Gastro Tract, it paralyzed my colon. Damaged my teeth, Vision, and 2 botched surgeries damaged my Dominate hand, and took half my hearing so I now have to wear hearing aids. I’ve had more trips to the ER for A-Fib due to the damage to my heart that these CRAP FDA APPROVED drugs caused to boot. I’m now having the remaining 11 lower teeth removed for a denture, damaged by FDA approved drugs. The Dentist won’t do the uppers as I have no teeth missing but Wisdom. They hurt, burn, the gums are receded, they are shifted in the jaw and need braces after the grafts, cost to fix over $200,000. And that does NOT include the 4 Molar implants I’d need. I opted for a lower denture which has cost about $5,000 now as they had to be pulled in stages and bone spurs removed. Been a 4 month process. Will be Feb before I see the lower denture as gums have to heal.
The CDC Quietly Admits It Screwed Up Counting Opioid Pills
CATO CDC Researchers State Overdose Death Rates From Prescription Opioids Are Inaccurately High
https://www.cato.org/blog/cdc-researchers-state-overdose-death-rates-prescription-opioids-are-inaccurately-high
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