First Do No Harm
The above link is the 183 page *.pdf that was the brain child of Indiana’s AG Greg Zoeller… on opiate dosing.
A couple of years back.. Zoeller “forced” the Indiana Medical Licensing Board to pass “emergency regulation” on mandatory drug testing for all pts on opiates.
After being at the war on drugs for 40+ yrs.. the only reason that I can figure out for the need for an emergency regulation is that it would eliminate at public comment period before a new regulation could go into effect.
The ACLU took the Medical Licensing Board to court and they were found guilty of violating the 4th Amendment of unreasonable search and seizure.
Not to be deterred … there is now a mandatory “patient contract” and within this contract is the pt’s AGREEMENT to urine/blood/hair testing. I wonder if the ACLU will consider this patient contract unreasonable search and seizures ?
There is even “talking points” within the document giving the prescriber answers to pt objections to many of the mandates within the document.
I have not read all 168 pages but it appears that 30 mg/day is the artificial limit they wish to keep pts under.. which in my professional opinion.. that MAY ADDRESS pts with mild-moderate chronic pain and that those pts whose pain management needs are higher mgs.. that it should not exceed 100 mg/day… That would put a Fentanyl 25 mcg patch at or above that limit.
I find the title of this document FIRST DO NO HARM… when the results of this prescribed pain management process will definitely do some harm to pts that suffer from mod-severe pain… and may even cause a untold number to commit suicide.
BTW… Ag Greg Zoeller is up for re-election this NOVEMBER 8th… those of you reading this that are residents of Indiana might want to consider AG Zoeller actions against the chronic pain community. In this May’s primary he ran for 9th district Federal House Representative.. and same in THIRD PLACE… or as some call it – SECOND LOSER… hopefully the citizens of Indiana have had enough of his obsession with the war on drugs, but in the fall election the worse that he can do is come in as FIRST LOSER !
Filed under: General Problems
I’m noticing that MED number in all these guidelines is slowly getting lower and lower…Could this be actual discrimination for those with genetic metabolizing issues of P450?
Even the VA is using these tests now, and about 30 percent of the population has these document-able disorders if you include UM, PM and IM. Not to mention that certain ethnic groups have much higher levels of these anomalies…leaving out a huge chunk of people who will not be able to have pain relief after surgery, etc. or if they develop chronic intractable pain.
Isn’t that discriminatory?
It should be!
Republican Greg Zoeller, like Democrats Joe Manchin and Hillary Clinton, enjoy a media environment that is self-serving for the corporate media.
Simply put, Zoeller, like Manchin and Clinton, frequently creates news.
A journalist who wishes to look smart, draw a following, and negotiate with his publisher for a pay raise for building a loyal following, can do that self-serving, career-building task, most easily, if a newsmaker like Zoeller or Manchin or Clinton, leaks a story to him 24 hours before it is released to competing reporters.
Journalists play k***-*ss to frequent newsmakers, for this very reason.
For example, the Civil Rights Movement was largely ignored, right up until the Montgomery Bus Boycott turned Martin Luther King into a frequent news source. Once that had happened, the Democratic Party had to muzzle it’s racists a tad, or risk losing elections to Black Republicans (as they had lost prior to the 1876 election, when the Ku Klus Klan’s reign of terror got enough elibible voters to stay home and avoid lynching, so that white minority rule could be re-established in the South). Then, when that didn’t work either, it became necessary to give large sums of money away, to various “causes” that broke up Black families and cultivated emotionally-disturbed angry children…often disguised as programs intended to help Black children, that only harmed the majority of Black children “by accident”. Even so, Dr King’s 1968 murder served the interest of political power-brokers, by fragmenting the movement he had begun…it was no longer possible to silence Black America, but as a fragmented set of splinter groups, each led by a political climber who put his success ahead of the safety of his community, it was possible to distort and warp their message, so that effective communication between Black and white voters, wasn’t happening very often. Change, meanwhile, happened. The Black middle class grew, and took on recognizable middle-class values such as thrift and personal responsibility, and got recognized by the white middle class as an ally, not an adversary.
I belabor this at length, to make a point,
Chronic pain affects everybody.
People who’ve made an effort to save their money and prepare for retirement, will be equally troubled by the political attacks on our right to self-treatment, regardless of our ethnic background.
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey built a huge conglomerate of video and print properties, by identifying with other women, more than she identifies herself as Black. The typical Oprah fan comprehends the middle-class value of personal responsibility, even if she has not yet attained a middle-class income. Such people as Dr Phil McGraw, who circle in Oprah’s orbit, help families sort out interpersonal problems on a “how can I make this better?” approach, rather than a “People would criticize my partner if they knew what he/she is like” basis. The Dr Phil approach is popular, principally because it actually works. I cannot change anybody’s mind, but my own. But if I learn not to antagonize the people I want in my life, I’ve a better chance of maintaining a relationship, than I’d have by insulting and abusing them. (Conversely, if someone insults and abuses me, it makes far more sense to exit the relationship, than to wait around for the abuser to have a moment of clarity.)
More Americans identify as having chronic pain, than identify as being Black or Latino.
Nearly four times as many Americans identify as having chronic pain, than identify as gay, lesbian, or transgendered. (And yes, gay people are still persecuted for having chronic pain issues. AIDS activist Peter McWilliams drowned in a pool of his own vomit, when DEA and California authorities arrested him and confiscated the legal medical cannabis he used to overcome the nausea caused by AIDS. Obama made a very big splash of permitting gay people to marry, while Bush made a big splash of opposing the practice…Neither politician has shown any inclination to help sick people with pain. And DEA still harasses California cannabis dispensaries. Only in Colorado, where the state AG could sue DEA for interfering with collection of the state recreational cannabis tax, has the DEA steered clear of triggering a state lawsuit, that could well find the DEA to be unconstitutional and force it to be disbanded. Colorado medical cannabis has escaped interference. Given that the Religious Right is very influential in Colorado, but despite this, medical cannabis is well-protected, it’s evident in hindsight that the San Francisco gay community’s politicking, did very little to protect Peter McWilliams from lethal persecution for acting according to his conscience. Electing Obama did little or nothing to help California’s AIDS patients.)
Chronic pain affects every ethnic group. It affects heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual humans.
That gives us a sizable demographic, if we learn to speak up effectively and quit fighting each other, over minor issues.
if the corporate media work too hard for the Zoellers and Manchins and Clintons of politics, they will face competition from the new media who communicate with the Chronic Pain population effectively.
This is no life. The medications labeled “substituted for” and Generic are reconfigured in such an unnatural way as to be lethal. I have tried 4 “versions” of oxycodones, all have a sleep depriving component added to them and I pray to god for the one part to be authentic. The same goes for the ADHD meds.