The statistic gatherers have so much data against opioids its impossible to stop pain regulations
Law enforcement has stats
Brds have stats on opioids
Profess organization has stats on opioids
Cities have stats on opioids
Treatment centers have stats on opioids
All of them use stats to support funding to justify their activities
The pandemic situation has caused the statistic folks to have data going through the roof on ODs deaths and addiction related bad outcomes
I have yet to run across someone reporting the pandemic has caused them more pain, didn’t allow them to get an Rx for pain meds, was turned down by their pain team…..
Just no universal collection of data, just individual anecdotes = no triggering event to jell a pain lives matter organization to rise up and get a voice
With the stats on elderly deaths in folks in their 70s and 80s, I predict the nursing home residents will be the next area of required tapering, who knows maybe CMS will treat them as anti-psychotics, that is what my gut says
The above is from a email that I received from a pharmacist friend of mine in another state… we exchange one or more emails almost daily. He knows where I stand in regards to abuse and denial of care of chronic pain pts. In a email I made my observation that there are a lot of similarities between the chronic pain community and the pharmacists community… Pharmacists especially those working for the chains are being abused – too much volume and not enough staffing. Chronic pain pts are being abused by practitioners… denied opiates for their pain and/or bullying into being routinely subjected to ESI – many/most medically unnecessary.
Both groups are big on whining, bitching and moaning and damn little action. We have a serious and growing surplus of pharmacists and if they stand up they know that there is someone waiting to take their job, but most have a six figure student loan to pay off and finding a new job… will be difficult at best and what Pharmacists are getting paid is dropping and most are only being offered 28-32 hrs/wk.. At best, they are making about HALF of what was being paid when they started pharmacy school 6 + yrs earlier.
Chronic painers are in a similar position, if they SPEAK UP… they fear being discharged from the practice and finding a new prescriber will be difficult … so they accept what the prescriber will give them and can’t/won’t SPEAK UP.
I found his observations quite interesting… all of those entities that have some skin in the game… collecting data … so that they can get more grant money… to keep fighting the war on pts/drugs that no one – who would tell the truth – would state that they are not even holding their own over the last 50 yrs…since the Controlled Substance Act 1970 was signed into law.
IMO, the gist of all his comments have to do with optics, the lack of unity within the community and all the infighting … This is from basically a state bureaucrat that has no attachment with the community and a lot of what he knows … he has got from reading my blog.
The conclusion that I come away with from his comments is that the conclusion from the optics that the community is displaying is that the community is NOT A THREAT to anyone and in all likelihood it will be a long time before – if at all – becomes a threat to anyone who opposes opiate prescribing or has a interest in trying to make the opiate crisis go away. The community knows that since the CDC opiate dosing guidelines came to be that we have more chronic painers being denied adequate pain management, we have untold number of have or are thinking about committing suicide and more uncountable number that are now suffering/dealing with PTSD from trying to deal with living/existing in a torturous level of pain.
There is no KNIGHT ON A WHITE HORSE coming over the horizon to save your ass, nor is there someone name “george” coming to save your ass.
My blog is in its 9th year and I could have written all of this in a post 9 yrs ago and it would have been current then as it is today.
Filed under: General Problems
The mock piety of the Puritans is still with us. When they hear “opioid crisis” their first and last reaction is ‘drugs are bad, drugs AND pleasure is from the Devil’, of course most of these have good spines and those that don’t would not dare contaminate their beloved mock Puritanisms.
…They are more than willing to keep riding this ‘peace train’.
Our complaints can not possibly be heard even if we were united, lawyer-ed up and many.
…And the DOJ has discovered how this popular response can be used to pocket billions for themselves…
The just forget to qualify WHO is dying from which opioid and how…
I agree with you on the writing of this today an writing 9 yrs ago.Its like we are frozen in time…I still dont think anything will change until we can get a lawsuit filed GOD knows there are so many laws being broken by denying us pain meds. Finding a law firm willing to take on the challenge is a problem in of itself..Its like what we are asking for “:human rights” is a sin no one wants a part of. This should never have gotten to where it is today…And its all for MONEY! Nothing else They could care less how many lifes are “lost” or something would have been done at our borders years ago where the illegal drugs flow through like water
Smuggling is impossible to stop at ANY level or by ANY route. It’s not about ‘borders’, …or about ships, where only %8 of ANY container ship can be searched for several reasons, or the mail, or air freight or speed boats. There are too many persons ready to take a bribe to let it in by all of these means and too much money for king pins and ‘mules’ to say “no”. Even “drug war” makes some in high places great wealth.