[null and void]

I am personally totally against unnecessary and overuse of painkillers, however I am also totally against the government telling doctors, who know their patients best, who should or shouldn't receive certain medications, including pain killers.

Says it all.

I've been on morphine. I really 'get' how addictive it could be, I also probably would have died of shock without it.

Had I needed to, I could've gotten un-addicted, getting un-dead is more challenging.

[Marcella]

I have prescribed hydrocodone as I have neurologist diagnosed fibromyalgia and I have joint and lower back problems as I'm 80 yrs. old. The hydrocodone is take it if I need it. These tablets are supposed to be habit forming and they are regulated - have to show my ID when I get a re-fill. If I work in the garden or my house enough to get bad pain, I take one. I don't want to be zonked out of my mind so one bottle lasts a very long time.

My husband was on chest patches for pain, similar to morphine, all the time due to a bone disease and pain all the time and those patches are very addictive. It was either the patches or he couldn't function. I read kids steal these patches from a parent who takes them, and they squeeze the liquid from the patch and swallow it and a number of them die from doing that. These patches are sold on the street by drug pushers.

My husband never put on more than one patch and had a schedule when to change a patch. Those patches are highly regulated because they are so addictive and dangerous if instructions to use them aren't followed.

People who abuse these drugs make it harder for a patient to get them. That is a pity for people who need them.

[Yaelle]

Yes, I have been on morphine twice for a week or so. Kinda needed it. The severe amount of pain was reduced to zero after brain surgery, which was a little scary as I was afraid I’d move wrong or touch the affected areas. But I didn’t.

Then I went home and was lying in bed with the sound of the TV in the next room boring into my head like a drill. I lay there silently shedding tears in agony wishing for another shot. That was my understanding of addiction. However, oral opiates helped for a bit until they could remove the metal spacers a week later, which dramatically reduced the agony, and then I slowly recovered with no pain meds at all. Never had another desire for the drugs. Didn’t “enjoy” them in any recreational sense but sure as hell needed them.

[Orange1998]

The other day a public radio station talked about pain medication. The retired head of MD Anderson Cancer pain clinic said the medications are a lifesaver for many.

He said the problem is any Doctor can prescribe them without the proper training and that is the problem.

I believe too, it’s best to regulate who can prescribe them rather than making criminals out of doctors. Highly addictive drugs should be in the hands of Pain Management doctors instead of any physician with a medical license.