there are some parallels between the current COVID-19 pandemic and the issue of chronic pain community and the substance abuse community.
Today the CDC came out with the lethality of the COVID-19 virus is abt 0.3%. Which is a similar percent (0.6%) of the number of chronic pain pts that are at risk of becoming addicted to opiates.
The bureaucracy has acted/reacted in the same/similar manner.. they have chosen which businesses could stay open and generate the same – or greater – revenues and profits and other deemed NON-ESSENTIAL and were forced to close about 10 weeks ago and now are permitted to function at abt 25% capacity… which few companies can pay the overhead expense at that income.
Just like the bureaucrats – mostly DEA and state Medical Licensing board are making decisions of what prescribers have to be SHUT DOWN… and discourage/chastise pharmacies from filling controlled substances .. again choosing winner and losers.
Some states are bending over backwards to make sure those who are substance abusers/addicts get their drug of choice or some drug that will keep them from going into withdrawal.
Chronic painers question why this subset of the population is being treated like winners while those in chronic pain and other subjective diseases are being treated as losers.
It is a common belief that substance abusers commit crimes to get money to fund paying for their next high/fix, many are living in shelters, under overpasses and tents on sidewalks. THEY ARE VISIBLE to the general population and the media.
You take the typical chronic painer that has had their meds cut/discontinued and they become home/bed/chair confined… they are INVISIBLE to the general population and the media.
It is claimed that there is 100 million chronic painers, but the adjacent picture is from Oregon State Capitol in Salem on May 22, 2019 of a group protecting how pain pts are being mistreated. If you were a bureaucrat and were told that there is 100 million chronic pain pts
There is abt 4 million people in Oregon and Salem Oregon has a population of abt 400,000. using averages… there is abt 120,000 chronic painers in Salem and 1.2 million in Oregon.. So if you were a bureaucrat… and saw a demonstration by chronic pain pts at the state capital and maybe a couple of dozen people showed up… would you be concerned about any group of people … when the number claimed to be impacted and the number that showed up in a protest/rally was dramatically different ?
We need to look at what some of the bureaucrats have done to small businesses – deemed to be non-essential – that have tried to reopen before the state claimed it was safe to do so…
One 77 y/o barber had his license revoked https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2020/05/state-agency-suspends-license-of-owosso-barber-who-defied-coronavirus-order-closing-non-essential-businesses.html even after The summary suspension order comes two days after Shiawassee County Circuit Court Judge Matthew J. Stewart turned down a request by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, filed on behalf of the state Department of Health and Human Services, for a temporary restraining order to close the business.
One gym, that opened early, had the locks on their gym’s doors changed overnight by the bureaucrats
The female governor of one state, where she had dictated that barber/beauty shops had to be kept closed… admitted on a interview that she was able to get a haircut …because she was “in the public view “
In Michigan, the Governor there dictated that no state resident was to go from their normal in state residence to their “summer house/condo”, but over the weekend a man showed up at a resort lake and asked that his boat be put into the water and when he was denied… he asked that ” .. if his wife was governor … would it make a difference”… the lake was abt 175 miles from their full time residence. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michigan-gov-whitmer-claims-husbands-reported-boat-request-was-a-failed-attempt-at-humor
One thing that seems to be common on all of these interactions between citizens and the bureaucrats is that law firms are busy filing injunctions with the courts. Some courts seem to favor the citizens and others seem to favor the bureaucracy.
I wonder if someone compared some of the depts within Walmart, Target, Meijers and other big box stores and some of the locally owned small business selling some/most of the same merchandise that have been deemed non-essential… could we get a better picture of how much the various bureaucracies have been allowed to pick winners and losers among retail businesses ?
Does the community need to review and rethink what has been done in the past and what has been accomplished and if a different path needs to be considered ?
Filed under: General Problems
[…] Looking at the OPTICS: bureaucrats picking winners and losers […]
Um, I was at that rally; that picture is misleading. there were more people than the picture implies. Not a lot more, mind you –not hundreds or thousands– but certainly more than 7. I estimate it was more like 40-50.
The dangerous thing, I’ve always thought, about these rallies is that so many of us CAN’T get out & about & stand or sit around for hours. This convinces the people who drive by that there is no real chronic pain “problem,” outside of a few whiners/attention seekers/addicts/add the usual other insults. And it’s even more difficult, & fewer people can get out now than several years ago, since it’s become nearly impossible to get proper treatment since the PROPaganda campaign started.
That said, the CPP community is viciously & insanely Balkanized. Every time I do a survey or comment in one of the FDA/CDC/whoever comment periods, I don’t recall ever seeing more than a very few thousand (at best) responses. There’s a heckuva lot more than that on all the (zillion) FAcebook pain support group pages, they’re mostly very active…so why can’t these people who can’t stand around all day & are on the computer for Fb, but can’t comment where it might (might!) do some good??
the focus of my blog post was about OPTICS… lets presume that your number of 50 is how many was there…and lets do a visual that a politician/bureaucrat was “seeing” by standing across the street from this rally/protest.. estimated 400,000 chronic painers in metro Salem area… if this denial of care is such a problem… would the bureaucrat expect to see at least ONE PERCENT Of those people to show up at a rally/protest – if their issue was that serious ? That number would be 4,000 demonstrators and since many of these people would have a spouse or significant other… if the problem is so bad… would one expect some of those people to join in the rally/protest ? If you consider the population of the entire state… those numbers would expected to increase THREE FOLD. If the politician/bureaucrat is seeing ONLY 50 PEOPLE PRESENT… Why would they think/believe that the purpose of the rally/protest is really that important and/or impacting that many people/voters ? Question has to be asked if these rally/protests with such low turnouts a positive or a negative for the community ?
Never was keen on “Rally’s” Cant get enough of CPP to rally. I think our only way of getting “noticed” is to have law firms start defending us. How do we do that? Im not expert with law an how firms get paid. I no our rights have been violated There is a list of infractions done to us.I guess its not a monetary suit as much as its Constitution rights being denied us. Can law firms make money off of suits like that? I dont no. But I think that is only way we will be heard. And why arent Law firms jumping at the chance to defend Doctors who have been set up an accused of being “drug pushers” when in fact they are treating patients,like the oath they took upon graduation?