[oceanview]

hard to tell where this will go. but consider that unless the entire story is a total fabrication, Rush is currently a person who has to take a bunch of these pain killers every day, not to get high, but probably for a chronic pain condition for which his drs could/would not provide adequate medication. and that goes on, day after day, you just don't stop using these kinds of drugs cold turkey.

[RJayneJ]

I appreciate your point of view. I live in a hospital bed and without pain medication I would barely function. I worried about getting hooked on Tylenol 4# and expressed my concerns to the doctor and his reply was that there are worse things and not to worry about it. I have taken them for the past 15 years. I only take half of what is prescribed but they sure help me live close to a normal life.

[Timesink]

hard to tell where this will go. but consider that unless the entire story is a total fabrication, Rush is currently a person who has to take a bunch of these pain killers every day, not to get high, but probably for a chronic pain condition for which his drs could/would not provide adequate medication. and that goes on, day after day, you just don't stop using these kinds of drugs cold turkey.

I too have given this possibility a lot of thought. My mother worked in a hospital for years, and I've heard dozens of horror stories about physicians. It is very, VERY common for a person with serious physical problems to have to suddenly switch from one doctor to another for any number of reasons, and have that new doctor turn their prescription regimen upside down, often for no other reason than "I don't believe in prescribing [x/y/z]." If x, y, or z is something as addictive as Oxycontin, then yeah, the person suddenly made to go cold turkey will almost certain turn to illegal sources to get it, because the withdrawal is physically intolerable.

Is it malpractice? Yes. But it happens every day anyway. That's why a few years ago, the FDA had to go so far as to issue government-mandated regulations that forces hospitals to give every patient as much pain medication as they need, regardless of how ignorant, backwards or mistrusting of patients a given MD might be. If they allow a single patient to suffer, the hospital can lose its accreditation and be closed down.

I figure within five years or so, similar regulations will be passed to protect outpatients as well.