There is abt 4.5 BILLION prescriptions filled – in community pharmacies and via mail order pharmacies – in the USA EVERY YEAR and we have some 320 million residents… doing the math that means that each person would have 14 prescriptions filled each year.
What can be estimated that most of the prescriptions are filled by people who are “seeking to improve their quality of life”
This time of year a lot of “drug seekers” are those known as ALLERGY SUFFERS… they seek out antihistamines, cortisone nasal sprays and other substances used to control their allergy symptoms and improve their quality of life.
No matter what disease state or condition/syndrome a person is dealing with.. all too many will seek out some medication(s) to help to control the undesirable symptoms from the disease.. basically.. the person seeks out to improve their quality of life.
Some groups try to draw a line between themselves as being chronic pain pts and those who abuse opiates.
If you take a step backwards and try to look at those who take/use opiates and controlled substances.. are those that take them legally and those who take them illegally.. because our society will not allow them to obtain them legally. Are they all that different ?
Both are typically suffering from depression, anxiety and physical and mental “pain”. Both are trying to “improve” their quality of life… just what their own opinion/definition of “improve” may be quite different.
Those who are suffering from the mental health issues of addictive personalities.. they have demons in their head and/or monkeys on their back. They are just “seeking” to improve their lives by attempting to silence those demons and monkeys. Their “high” is getting some solitude from those things causing them mental pain.
Those that suffer from chronic pain are also “seeking” their own particular “high”, but their high is to calm the pain that torments them, keeping them from participating in a “normal family life”.
IMO, those in the chronic pain community that wants to point fingers at those who our society has labeled as “addicts” and continue to point out “that is not us/me”… it is “them”..
People with mental health issues have always been “looked down upon” .. just told to “suck it up and get over it”… our health insurance system has normally had poor coverage for seeing mental health professionals.
Is this part of the puritanical thread in our societal fabric that is still part of the “witch hunts” from the late 17th century in our country ?
Is those in the chronic pain community doing themselves any favors by agreeing with the DEA that those with mental health addictive issues are “bad people” and CRIMINALS ?
Recently our previous Surgeon General declared that addiction is a mental health issue and not a moral failing http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vivek-murthy-report-on-drugs-and-alcohol_us_582dce19e4b099512f812e9c
Does it make any sense that two different major Federal agencies and members of the Presidential Cabinet (DOJ & Surgeon General) are on opposite sides of the same coin… in dealing with people that are suffering from chronic conditions that opiates and controlled substance can help people deal with their health issues ?
Filed under: General Problems
We are such a hypocritical society.They advertise constantly through our televisions,a pill this a pill for that,ask your doctor if such and such is right for you.Then they say we are a nation of drug seekers.Pardon me,but bull shit.
What is the difference between Wall Street executives snorting their cocaine in a fancy office,and a drug addict who shoots up in an alley,and will steal to obtain their drug? Only one difference.The executive has enough money to go unnoticed without the need to steal.The alley way down and outer is broke.Socioeconomic factors are the major difference.
In the nineteenth and early years of the 20th century,the hard working farmer could simply go to the drug store and buy a bottle of codeine syrup in order to ease his pains.Cocaine was available in Coca Cola ,and many medicinal products contained cannabis extracts.And of course alcohol was plentiful.
Humans need substances because they are human.Most use their substances without major problems.Why all this drama and hysteria?Why this foolish obsession with keeping from people what they need to improve their day and treat their misery? If all of it was legalized and available as in the 19th century,what would happen?NOTHING! The majority would use what they need responsibly,and a small percentage of the population would abuse and bring misery on themselves and others.In other words,nothing much would change and society would not collapse.Most people know their limits,and do not need authorities breathing down their backs.Our societal foolishness has created the drama.
The meme,a nation of drug seekers,is bull.Every nation on earth has their own substance of preference,.This hysteria,this making criminals out of others because their human,is insane.It needs to end.A few countries that have legalized all drugs,taking a more sensible approach,have found it to be workable.Why? Because it allows humans to be humans,without the stigma,without the drama.Our country needs to wake up,and stop the hysteria.Its insanity!
Yes. A large number of addicts have no job or even a desire to GET a job, they support their addiction through criminal acts. On the other hand, I would think most unemployed chronic pain patients would kill for the opportunity to be able to hold down a job if they were pain-free.
They claim that we have 45 million alcoholic and many of those are “functioning alcoholics” because they can get the “drug of choice” at their convenience… we have no reason to believe that if those who are abusing opiates had a dependable, pharmaceutical grade opiate.. how many would become “functioning addicts” We have an estimated 2.1 million serious opiate substance abusers… every one that is treated for the mental health disease that they have and even if they become a “functioning addict” holding down a job, paying taxes and not committing crime to fund their habit.. The only people who will be harmed by such .. is those employed by our judicial system.. because they would loose the reason for their existence… and their jobs.