Legal Complaint Filed Against CDC Opioid Guidelines
https://edsinfo.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/legal-complaint-filed-against-cdc-opioid-guidelines/
Comments/complaints filed by the Washington Legal Foundation regarding the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines:
On November 17, 2015, WLF filed formal comments with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calling on CDC to withdraw its Draft Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain and, before renewing efforts to write guidelines, to generate reliable data on ways to ensure adequate treatment of patients while preventing opioid abuse.
WLF argued that CDC has been conducting its administrative proceeding with unwarranted secrecy and in clear violation of the transparency requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
The CDC Draft Guideline—which CDC has never publicly released but which was leaked in late September—calls on doctors to cut back significantly on prescriptions of opioids to treat patients with chronic pain, as a means of reducing the possibility of drug addiction and abuse. Many advocates for patients suffering from chronic pain have decried CDC’s proposal; they fear that it would deprive patients of adequate treatment.
Download the WLF Comments – definitely a worthwhile and extremely satisfying read:
http://www.wlf.org/upload/litigation/misc/CDCComments-Opioids.pdf
Washington Legal Foundation serves as a counterweight to the voices of economic activists and the plaintiffs’ bar that are heard whenever anti-free enterprise issues arise in the courts and regulatory agencies. Our legal team shapes legal policy through aggressive litigation and advocacy at all levels of the judiciary.
Filed under: General Problems
Steve, thank God for you helping those of us REAL PATIENTS who have INCURABLE diseases. We live in REAL PAIN DAILY. Can’t sleep due to pain. I have 12 Real diagnosis from Rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid vasculitis, Malignant hypertension, pinched cervical nerve, 3 herniated discs in back, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Carpel tunnel, IBS, Diverticulitis, Post Traumatic stress (car accident) Not my fault. I’d like to join the lawsuit. Thanks. Corinna in Florida
How can I join the lawsuit ? Doctor kicked me to the curb.
Where can I get in on a class action
I’m trying to find one that is current myself. Or start one. Something. Please reply if you happen to find any information please. It’s out of control and I’ve had it
Is there a class action lawsuit againt the DEA/CDC any branch of government anywhere? Christie was the nail in our coffin. I am done with signing petitions, emails, phone calls. I have been doing these things since 2013. Nothing has helped. Pain patients are giving up or continuing with the same useless things. That is the definition of insanity. Repeating the same things over and over expecting different results. My life has been stolen. I have been bed ridden in HELL fir 4 &1/2 years. My specialist cannot prescrible what is accepted medical protocol. I see no one anywhere doing anything, other than now trying to decide what is the best way to off themselves when they cant go on anymore. I desperately want a class action lawsuit, but in absolute horror and disgust see that states are suing big pharma now for making pain pills. We have a case. The DEA lied. They did the same as far as marijuana recently and that is being fought. Why are we not?!
I would love to be part of a class action suit against the CDC for the tremendous amount of harm these guidelines are causing. At my pain clinic they are cutting everybody back to 90 meq, no matter what because the docs are afraid of being sued if somebody dies who is on a higher dose. It took me and my docs about 3 years to find the right meds and the right dose so that I could continue to work and lead a relatively normal life. Now as the dosage gets cut my days are getting more frequent and much harder to deal with. I may lose my job because some days I cannot get to work and have to call in sick. On days when I do work it is hard to concentrate on what I need to do. I work in the medical field and need to be able to concentrate on the work before me because people’s lives can be at stake if I miss crucial information.
These guidelines not only hurt the pain patient but can actually put other people’s lives in danger. Something needs to be done to reverse this cruel and unusual punishment we have to endure because a few people have abused the system.
Taking my meds away will kill me due to my head injury from car wreck and I dropped a railroad tie on my big toe and work , no steel toe boots I am in serious pain for rest of my life CDC feel my pain in my body , before u think of even taking million of suffering peoples pain meds, thats not right agianst the law, its crazy, CDC needs to be stopped, befor they destroy american suffering people , not cool
I live in chronic pain everday of my life I dropped a railroal Tie on my big Toe years ago , taking my meds away for pain will kill me and others in pain , CDC better stop there bullshit now becuase lots of Lawsuits will be filed agianst them for making millions of people suffer from Pain in America
Why is there not a “when appropriate” attached to lowering doses? Differing meds work on different people at lower doses. I am lucky to be hypersensitive to pain meds. I know others who are not, some from conditions such as prior surgery that makes absorption of meds impossible.
Finally someone is doing something . . . I doubt anything good will come of it though. Here in the State of Tennessee, even thought the State law has not changed, EVERYONE treated for chronic pain, except for terminal cancer patients, are being cut to 120 milliequivalents of morphine per day. Now, I know that sounds like a lot but it isn’t really. HHS (a Federal bureaucracy that needs to be abolished) has issued “guidelines” that set patients to 120mg per day. Even then it says that number is arbitrary and maneuverable per patient but the licensed pain clinics in TN aren’t budging. I’m not sure why the drug companies and producers aren’t crying foul! This has really got to be cutting into their bottom line. It is so discouraging. I was once a functionable mother/wife even though I have a painful, incurable disease. Now, all I can do is lay in bed, my house is falling apart, I can’t sleep for pain. What is my next step . . .
This is great news… I am a chronic pain sufferer and I do not reside in America. This guideline could be catastrophic for chronic pain sufferers internationally. Please put a stop to CDC and the CEG. In my country we have less options for pain medication. I have trialed everything medicinal but tramadol is the only opioid that my body accepts. I still receive pain daily, but tramadol makes it possible for me to continue to walk. Without the opioid life is physically painful and unbearable. I hate medication, taking pills was not what I had foreseen in my future, but I’ve come to accept this, until research and new medication has been invented. Please allow opioids for chronic pain patients and develop new medication to replace it. I don’t want to be on opioids forever but we have no other options available. I shouldn’t have to pay more for medical care. My injury was done from malpractice. I should receive proper care and treatment, but I don’t, if you take tramadol away from me without given a better replacement, then you may as well kill me now