Elephants in the room
IMO, there are so many F-ing ELEPHANTS in the room, I am not sure where to start the list. Apparently the first step on the path to where the chronic pain community has ended up today was The Harrison Narcotic Act 1914 and the motivation behind this act was bigotry and racism. And then in 1917 the courts/judicial system declared that the mental health disease of addictive personality disorder was not a disease but a crime in and by itself. So everything was put in place for our judicial system to arrange for “treatment” of those with mental health and have chosen to self medicate the demons in their head and/or monkeys on their backs with opiates. As is normal with our judicial system .. they create laws… people break those laws… so those people are put in prison.
One of the “elephants” is how disjointed the chronic pain community is. There is a growing number of support groups, Face Book pages, websites and it seems like there are a small core of people involved in all of these groups. Numerous petition have been created and often few have signed all of these petitions and the only one that I am aware that got enough signatures to warrant attention. That one was signed by 150 K + calling for the removal of the head of the DEA.. to this point .. I am not aware of any action that has been take on that particular petition that reached a level where some action was suppose to be taken.
The DEA/CDC/FDA and other agencies that are part of the alphabet soup of Federal agencies are exerting their influence over the war on drugs.
Then for profit entities like Corrections Corporation of America who run private prisons and it has been reported that they do “back-room lobbying” Congress for longer penalties for non-violent drug offenders… they basically are making a profit running a “baby sitting service” for non-violent drug offenders.
Suicides… those who “track the numbers” of drug overdose deaths… don’t seem to care much about the difference between a suicide by drug overdose and a unintentional/accidental drug overdose. It may be time that the community start making these suicides more VISIBLE to the media… to counteract the high visibility that the DEA makes of all drug overdose deaths.
The chronic pain community is suffering from a “invisible disease” … but they need to be more visible with the media about the how your quality of life is being adversely affected by the various things that are being imposed to fight the war on drugs.
The chronic pain community needs to UNIFY.. take the appropriate news that they see posted on various media and get into the habit of sending it to their local investigative reports.. their twitter, Face Book and or Fed/State congressional representatives. Make them aware of what is going on to those in the community from around the country.
Filed under: General Problems
I’m no media expert, but I read what’s in the “news,” and it seems like a lot of attention goes to certain popular sites, like Twitter. If something blows up on Twitter, everyone pays attention. It’s like 2016’s version of petitions. Thing is, no one ever knows what messages are going to go viral.
The key is getting the message out to everyone who doesn’t know about our struggles, especially because the media won’t do it. And I think pain patients are stepping up to the task. I’ve noticed a marked increase in activity in comment sections for articles on the opioid war, most of them on our side.
So, even if pain patients can only manage something small like a blog to get the message out, when one person learns of our struggles, then that person will be able to pass our message onto others. Maybe one person at a time, but that’s how it works. It’s slow, even in the internet age, because their are billions of voices.
It will be better for your health if you look more towards the future instead of the present. Just saying.
what people who suffer from chronic pain do not realize is that its about politics.The Dea,cdc,fda are all government entities. We have made petitions to senators for our rights to be treated and they have ignored us.I could write about my abuse by doctors and my pain all day /night long.It won’t change a thing ,plus I’m not looking for sympathy have mentioned article V from the original constitution to be acted on due to an overreaching federal government that is out of control.To be forced to have mandatory health care and not get that health care really is theft of service.I have been told by pain groups on face book if you want to talk about politics, there are groups for that.I suffer from chronic pain and I am being discriminated against for nerve damage,I have had no medicine for over a year.I did not need rehab because as the Dea has said people with nerve damage that take pain medicine are addicts.So who benefits from me living in constant pain with mandatory health care i can’t use? And please do not forget it was politicians who made the Dea.
To create a unified voice there needs to an agenda created of goals to be accomplished. Advocates for change can unify under this one agenda taking it by petition to legislators for change. As it is now each group, Facebook page, etc. stand alone. Somehow they need to be united for a single voice but the time and financial resources to do that are very limited. I have fantasized that when I’m fired from big box for advocating for pain patients, pushing back against indiscriminate corporate refusal to fill – filling mandates, and selling “too many” of those DEA scrutinized medications I will take that job. The voices of CPPs need to be heard.
Steve,
One of the elephants in the room you haven’t given their share of the blame is big pharma. Starting with oxycontin, some selling practices were abysmal – for instance telling Dentists they could prescribe one oxycontin tablet to hold them until they could take NSAIDs after an extraction (that’s the worst I’ve heard). This was followed by the very questionable studies on ‘pain is the 5th vital sign,’ and pain relief being added to the patients bill of rights. Now, all of that is coming home to roost and pain patients will be holding the messy end of the stick.
I have quite clear memories listening to patients sob in pain and beg for comfort after a sub-therapeutic dose of narcotic had been prescribed with an inappropriate dosing interval (say, 50 mg demerol q 4 h). Everybody except the prescriber had to listen to the patient cry and sometimes scream until the end of the fourth hour, when the eventual shot did more to promote abuse than almost anything you could do (relief of pain temporally associated with the shot after the torture of not receiving analgesia and knowledge that the relief wouldn’t be long enough before the next hour of pain).
I’m terrified that when the pendulum swings back to where it was in those days, I’ll be the one screaming. Everybody should demand better training in pain relief than the docs currently get, and you know damn well that they are getting it where practicing physicians have overwhelmingly received it – from big pharma sales reps. That’s just wrong.
Again, big pharma reaps the profit and the patient gets it in the neck.
There needs to be a petition to do away with the Dea, the news won’t report the chronic pain community side. Fda,cdc,and Obama care are all federal entities isn’t it supposed to be the states have the power not the federal government?
Sorry don’t the states have the power to stand up to tyranny if need be , because the states created the federal government