Misguided Repeal to Cure Opioid Crisis Ignores Patients’ Pain
thepainfultruthbook.com/2016/12/misguided-repeal-to-cure-opioid-crisis-ignores-patients-pain/
Once again, I read the Intractable Pain Act (along with the section of it known as the “Pain Patient’s Bill of Rights”) which was passed by the Tennessee House and Senate in 2001 and repealed in 2015.
I did not see anything in the legislation that supports the statement made by Knox News columnist Frank Cagle that “when a patient was discharged from the hospital, they had to sign a form saying they have been issued all the pain medicine they wanted. If they didn’t get all the pain pills they wanted, the doctor could be sanctioned.”
What the Intractable Pain Act States
Instead, the now-defunct Intractable Pain Act states the following:
- A patient suffering from severe chronic intractable pain should have access to proper treatment of his or her pain.
- Opiates can be an accepted treatment for patients in severe chronic intractable pain who have not obtained relief from any other means of treatment.
- A physician treating a patient who suffers from severe chronic intractable pain may prescribe a dosage deemed medically necessary to relieve severe chronic intractable pain as long as the prescribing conforms with the provisions of this section.
- The patient’s physician may refuse to prescribe opiate medication for a patient who requests the treatment for severe chronic intractable pain. However, that physician shall inform the patient that there are physicians whose primary practices are the treatment of severe chronic intractable pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
Did Drug Industry Lobbyists Play a Role?
The author of the article claims the drug industry pushed the 2001 legislation through the legislature. I don’t know what role, if any, the “drug industry lobbyists” played in passing this law, but I don’t see anything in this bill that isn’t reasonable in providing relief to people in pain. There is no mandate in the Act to prescribe opioids. The Act, however, enables doctors to treat pain patients with opioids when that is the best available treatment.
The ubiquitous view that treating pain is the reason for the opioid crisis mischaracterizes the problem. Worse, it conflates the needs of people in pain with the efforts to curb illegal drug use, and it leaves chronic pain patients with few treatment options.
Tennessee repealed the Intractable Pain Treatment Act in 2015 in response to a record high of opioid overdoses. But the repeal didn’t address the cause of the problem. According to a recent article in the Tennessean, the increase in overdose deaths is largely due to illegally produced and distributed synthetic fentanyl, not prescription painkillers.
The legislators in Tennessee meant well. They were right in thinking that the opioid crisis is a serious problem that causes far too much carnage.
No Reduction in Overdoses in the Aftermath of the Repeal
However, their effort to curb the opioid crisis has not reduced the availability of illicit drugs nor the number of overdoses, while it has made it more difficult for people in pain to find relief. The lesson to be learned is that most of the harm from opioids in Tennessee comes from illicit or diverted opioids and that repealing the Intractable Pain Act, thus far, has not curbed the opioid crisis or reduced the number of opioid-related overdoses.
Filed under: General Problems
If there’s no agenda against people who suffer with chronic intractable pain then what is it that makes so many government agencies so totally ignorant that they can’t see what is really happening in this country?
Hello Connie. There is an agenda but its not just against us. I don’t mean to be rude but in the wake of 9/11 we have had a police state erected around us. Too many are stuck in the thinking that the govt gives a damn and is there to represent us and work for us. In the space of time since 9/11 the govt has passed 33 illegal acts restricting access to firearms (while arming Mexican drug cartels and Syrian “rebels”) Our heroin epidemic has coincided in perfect time w/the occupation of Afghanistan. No conspiracy theory needed. Google images of Afghan poppy fields and NATO troops or US Marines (Geraldo Rivera even interviewed on commander that said they let the locals grow poppies to keep them from going over to the Taliban) That is an outright lie. The only crime the Taliban did to the US govt is STOP the production of poppies. They had almost totally eradicated the poppy fields. They offered up Bin Laden IF the US Govt could produce evidence of his complicity in 9/11, of course that proof was not forthcoming. What was were bombs and poppy seeds.
We live in a virtual police state. It is not a secret that the CIA is the bigget drug trafficking organization on earth. This was outlined as far back as the 80s w/the Iran Contra ties to cocaine importation and was so big that even Judge (ex head of the DEA) Bonner admitted on 60 minutes that the DEA had uncovered a TON of cocaine w/no clearance to enter the US (as w/most buy/busts). What we as Americans are afraid to admit to is the truth. Our “government” is a criminal enterprise who feed off our misery like parasites. Think this is a little overboard? Why is it that up to 70% of what the Federal govt does is found NOWHERE in the Constitution? (the only legitimacy it has for its actions)
The Constitutional Common Law has been replaced by UCC/MARTIAL law. They do not respect our rights, pass laws that have no basis in legality (only color of law). The PATRIOT ACT NDAA. Heres’s one The Smith Mundt Modernization Act.. It legalized the distribution of govt made propaganda to Americans through the media.(why they hate the internet and are moving against it by calling it fake news) Most of what you see on the “news” is a narrative, half of it not even taking place except in the mind of some script writer. The goal? Pit us againt ourselves to obfuscate their criminal enterprises like the 6 TRILLION that is missing JUST from the DOD since 9/11. That day was much more than a terrorist attack, it was a coup d’etat. Since they carry on w/fake elections and the obvious fear of reality most rationalize it away.
America has become what we’ve fought against for hundreds of years. 100 times worse than anything King George ever thought of doing and it won’t get better until people look up for their phones and Dancing w/the Stars, football/basketball and every other bread and circus they throw at us. In Common Law one had to either injure someone or steal/damage ones property to even have the slightest chance of being in legal trouble. The STATE cannot be the Judge and prosecutor, esp for victimless crimes. IF our founders could be transported into present day America they would drop dead of heart attacks. Constant illegal wars, private bank charging us 6% on every dollar it prints from thin air for OUR OWN $$!?!?! 535 members OF BOTH PARTIES (really one w/two sides) are guilty of high treason and need to be arrested immediately NOT VOTED OUT OF OFFICE. The cognitive dissonance is pathetic. If we saw the things going on now in another country we would cry tyranny. Where are our minds? Why do we go about our business like nothing has changed. Why and how on earth does a govt even have the right to say what we put in our own body? If someone wants to smoke crack and ruin their lives let them. They want to control both sides. They can police AND traffic drugs. Prison, courts, rehabs, police depts, task forces are big money, THEY aren’t losing the war on drugs WE ARE.
If you look in ARTICLE III US Constitution there is not ONE FEDERAL COURT THAT CAN SIT IN PERMANENCE, NAY NOT ONE OTHER THAN THE Supreme Court.
It shall get worse before it gets better. Until people are affected directly they could care less or do not notice or their minds are swayed by propaganda. This epidemic is always the worst one in history (obligatory eye roll). I’m not lecturing you Connie. I’m stating that our people, those who are suffering the most under this despotic regime of crooks, including myself for MANY yrs, couldn’t and can not see the forest for the trees. We are petitioning criminals and treasonous thugs. Voting for lesser of two evils and getting evil and wondering why.
I know what the answer is, it was given to us by our founders. Its just a question of when enough people will want to implement it.
(not talking of taking up arms but legislating the federal govt out of our states) Our sovereign independent NATION STATES. Thats right. We are not a country. We are not the United StatE. We are a union of states. If we were a country, why bother to have state legislatures? Why have state boundaries? Why have different tax codes? Why have different drivers/fishing/hunting/business licenses? We need to nullify through our STATE legislators all of these illegal actions of the Feds.
Why are we even entertaining the idea that unelected bureaucratic agencies have ANY say over ANY part of our healthcare system?
They like to speak, esp the DEA about law. Enforcing regulations created by unelected bureaucrats is illegal. We are not bound by these as they are no more than dictatorial powers disguised as regulations (enforced as laws as evidenced by their JAIL times and fines) Same goes for the ATF, Dept of Education (not created until 1980) why the Feds are only in charge off what is specifically enumerated in their founded charter document. IF we do not start holding them to it and waiting for some savior to come along we are in for some hard times. Most likely another depression and/or civil war.