[[I am certainly not “demonizing a medication”. I am criticizing the claim that opiates have a place in treating chronic pain.]]
With all due respect- yes you are- you claim all people need is an operation- a risk in itself- and you fail to mention which types of pain operations can help with- mostly they are with spinal pain- some other pains- however, operations do not help all chronic pain sufferers- As well, not everyone can afford $30,000, $30,000 or more operations- numerous operations etc- even with insurance paying some- and as mentioned, there are no guarantees such operations will even help- and as mentioned, there aren’t operations for many types of chronic pain- Many folks are beyond operation qualified- an these folks must somehow deal with crippling pain-
Some cases can indeed be solved with operations- noone is disputing that- but to suggest there isn’t a place for chronic pain management with opioids because some people- very few people infact, get addicted, is not a genuine argument-
I referenced a book published some 60 years ago. Some roughly 400 different procedures specifically tailored to specific diagnoses. They do not all require expensive procedures. I recall helping a neurosurgeon to a “percutaneous Cervial Spinothalamic tractotomy” for an invasive tumor of the brachial plexus. It was done as an OUTPATIENT in the CT suite. It was 100% effective.