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.
pelt=post
I’m actually agnostic on pot. what I strongly oppose is the type of single-issue blindness that leads people to vote for a candidate that is 99% full of sinister BS because he is 1% right on their sacred issue — pot.
. . . and I am particularly annoyed at libertarians because, although they NEVER get elected to anything, they to sometimes supply the margin of victory to liberal democrats who then go to WashDC and hijack everyone’s healthcare. everyone’s healthcare was NOT worth their legal pot.
The difference is cannabis has not done damage to a single cell in any human body. Even at doses that would be impossible to consume and cost thousands of dollars, you cannot cause damage. If you forget and take another dose of cannabis, it will not harm you. Hell, if you try your damnest to kill yourself, nothing will happen except long sleep. Cannabis has no physical withdrawal symptoms besides slightly less sleep. Coffee and refined sugar are far more physically addictive than cannabis (”dont talk to me until I had my coffee!”).
Opiods can easily kill you if you abuse or just forget about multiple doses. Opiods cause devastating withdrawal sickness that make it near impossible to quit. Opiod tolerance of heavy users goes through the roof and we allow super opiods like fentanyl/carfentanyl to be legally sold.
These things are practically bioweapons that can kill most people with a tiny grain simply contacting their skin. Any comparison to the herbal medicine cannabis is absolutely ludicrous!
Similar to the old-time "tobacco FR contingent," whose only issue seemed to be the promotion of tobacco use.
“Thank God it was legalized in Alaska.”
Thank you for sharing your story. Thank God so many people are seeing through the pharma propoganda.
Where’s that “like” button when I need it? (I like your post.)
You did a good job..with the all caps and the sounding crazy part,too.
I had a relative die with cancer in his back. He was in agony and the opioids were his only relief and he had to have that relief or wanted to be knocked out.
Doctors need to be more lenient with prescribing them for surgeries etc... I had hemorrhoid surgery a couple of years ago and it HURT and I was prescribed opioids. But it was a fairly limited amount right off the bat in one prescription, not even a weeks worth. I took two and then switched to prescription strength Ibuprofen. After hemorrhoid surgery the last thing I needed was constipation from opioids.
If marijuana legitimately helps certain ailments, fine, but that needs to be a narrow definition. My first cousin started with marijuana, it was and still is his drug of choice but he would take anything after a while. He is in his late forties and has been an addict since his late teens. The last six months he has been clean. We are praying for the best but prepared for the worst. His niece, whom he started her off on marijuana will take, snort or shoot anything you give her. Five kids later the state decided it might want to tie her tubes.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water on opioids. Restrict the prescriptions more to cancer patients in agony and those in real pain.
Reporters are telling us that most of the individuals who died were cremated and had so much marijuana in there system that funeral home workers and crematorium workers were all “Blazed as f*ck” while the cremations were happening and even reported to be high even after 5 days.
And as for the other two articles, I'm pretty sure that at least one person has shot their wife and another has jumped out of a window without smoking the "Devil's Weed."
Holy-moly some of you people are exhausting...
LOL!
However....comma....
Even I have chronic pain from Bruxism(headaches like a hangover, teeth hurting, jaw and neck sore), two shoulder surgeries that left me in low level pain when that shoulder is not being used to excruciating pain if I mop a floor or workout.
Since this fake epidemic I can no longer get any medication for relief.
Oh but, the moralists out there say “take pot, CBD...” clowns.
It doesn’t work....on me.
Efficacy is not universal, like getting drunk isn’t a sure thing when two men drink exactly the same amount of alcohol.
Drugs and booze have differing effects on other people, with different results unique to each individual.
For instance, there are some drugs I cannot take because they just make me sick.
MJ smoked is gross.
CBD has zero effect on my shoulder and even less for my bruxism.
Still, the nanny state, MAD, AA, etc and church going prima donna’s say “Too effin bad about your pain and it’s effect on your daily life”
I have been on pain meds for 10 yrs, it took six of those yrs to get the pain relief mix right. I take two different short term opiods 4 times a day, as well as gabapentin and lyrica for nerve damage. The pharmacist constantly questions why I take two lesser opiods instead or morphine. DOH, because I try to take the minimum dose I can. He also questions Lyrica and gabapentin.. DOH different receptors. The pharmacist is trying to reduce his customers on certain meds to show “progress” in reducing opiods under florida’s new guidelines. I also can’t get prescriptions early or more than a 30 day supply, And you must be physicallly present at your pain management doctor to get a prescription issued on paper, no over the phone renewals. So I’m tethered to the house, no two month road trips to visit the kids, or friends. And for those of you without high level chronic pain, consider yourself lucky. A day without my meds would be like a nail driven through my big toes and my legs recovering from burns at the same time.
Because pot is legal opioid use should be too?
I guess marijuana might be the gateway drug that so many have claimed it is.
I never knew there was such a thing as a pain management doctor???
I have to be drug tested every two months to get my tramadol from the va. I don’t know if they are checking if I take them or get more somewhere else. I have bee taking the same dosage for years with no change.
Yes, but, all that is worthwhile to even slightly reduce the chance that some darwinbait idiot without whom the world would be better can’t get their hands on some knock off Chinese stuff and clean the genepool. I mean your pain means nothing to the Authoritarians posing as conservatives - all that matters is adherence to the State. /sarc
I sincerely wish all the bastards who want these substances to be in any way restricted from someone who believes they need them could suffer for a few years in the extreme pain a couple of my friends have had to put up with.
I wish these nanny-state worshippers could suffer the level of pain you and a few others have to go through. ‘Moralist’ ass clowns who are more worried about somebody overdosing than they are about people in pain. I’d rather the genepool clean itself out by a few hundred thousand AND people who need pain relief get it in the quantity and ease that they need it.
I think if someone has a well documented need for pain control, they should get the absolute best pain meds which are available, namely, opioids, or synthetic opioids. People should not be made to live with chronic pain. It is barbaric and in some cases will lead to suicide.
You can oppose government meddling without assuming the role of medical professional qualified to make medical arguments. She failed to do that in this article.
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