I have learned that when Barb asked me what I was talking about in one of my posts that I have gotten “too deep into the weeds” on a issue. The post in question this time is
Are we losing pieces of the “solution puzzle ” ?
The government, bureaucrats, politicians, and regulators are all about numbers.. Some times they don’t pay attention to the people they are suppose to be serving. Maybe it is just me, but there seems to be an ever enlarging gap between “the people” and the bureaucracy. This past week a Fed Rep or Senator was on “the tube” complaining that Congress passes laws and those agencies that are suppose to implement and enforce these rules – DO NOTHING !
Some 140,000+ people signed a petition to get the head of the DEA fired because he stated that MJ/MMJ was a joke. outcome ? no change to date Some 4000+ made comments on the new CDC guidelines, mostly against them… outcome ? the original guidelines will be implemented unchanged Our previous AG (Holder) left office while still being held in contempt of Congress.. outcome ? No action..
Unlike the civil war 150 yrs ago over slavery, there is no doubt about it .. we are in the middle of another civil war.. declared by Congress in 1970 by the Controlled Substance Act and being carried on by the DOJ/DEA and the entire judicial system from the cop on the street… all the way up to the Federal AG. 51 billion dollars being expended every year fighting this civil war…
Congress is taking our tax money to fund the war against 106 million chronic painers, untold number with mental health (including addiction) and untold number of healthcare professionals trying to practice their profession and help pts who are suffering. All told, over HALF of our population is the target enemy of this civil war.
I can almost assure you that if you and a friend sent a letter/email/fax to a Fed Rep or Senator.. one supporting how the war on drug is being fought and the other against how the war is being fought.. Each of you will receive a return letter agreeing with your position and your concerns and will take your opinion into consideration when they have to vote on a proposed bill/law concerning the war on drugs.
Let’s face it.. politicians only care about $$$ funneled into their reelection campaign and your vote. It is claimed that politicians spend 70%+ of their time – while in office – running for reelection.
All one has to do is watch all the “goings on” in Iowa this week. I was listening to the Republican debate the other night. At times, it sounded like a Christian revival meeting… nothing wrong with such.. but.. they were tripping all over themselves to “court” that vote in Iowa.. It is estimated that the “evangelical vote” is about 39% of the USA population.
The chronic pain community and other groups having war declared against them is somewhere north of 150 million. In the last presidential election the total votes were 126 million .. and 5 million separating the winner from loser.
There are 535 members of Congress.. if the group established a network a coalition of those affected by the war on drugs. All would be needed is one person as national coordinator, one state level coordinator in each state and one person to be a regular contact with the appropriate LA (Legislative Aid) in each Senator/Representative’s office. Total of less than 600 people.
Imagine how much attention this group would draw.. if the state coordinator contacted a specific legislator/LA and stated that “we want …” and when they get the run around.. a email is sent out to all the members in the state which would commence a tsunami of emails, faxes to that particular office.
The 800 lb gorilla in the room is how does someone get all this coordination together. Given the 4,000 comments on the CDC guidelines.. would suggest that the vast majority of those being impacted by the war on drugs…are unwilling/unable to get involved for whatever reason.
I am not sure if all this attention to those in the chronic pain community by the DEA/CDC and others in the bureaucracy is at the direction of this administration or they have colluded to “go off the reservation together”.
Without a organized..highly visible… resistance … they will continue to use YOUR TAX DOLLARS to bury you. Create all the individual organizations and FaceBook groups you like… raise funds for a cure.. that may not be realized in your lifetime… Or band together to seek to get your pain properly treated in the very near term. They can interfere with you getting your meds.. they can’t interfere with your vote.. to VOTE THE BUMS OUT !
Filed under: General Problems
great idea…there is a plan in the works for both or are you already part of that plan? I am new here and getting to know everyone….but I like the way you think! email me at gmail.com if you want to talk more. I’m in any way i can help : ))
Steve…talk about like mindedness…I’m just seeing this posting this morning on the First of February, 2016. Last night, I replied to a correspondence that I’ve been engaging in with Dr. Ibsen. In so many words, I was telling him pretty much the same thing about the Chronic Pain Community (patient’s and providers, e.g., the prescribers, us the pharmacists, the nurses, et.al.) and the need to unify and shout with one loud unison voice, “NO!” with the intent of revoking our consent to be ruled as we have been on this issue and the War on Drugs as a whole. As I also stated in my correspondence to the good Doctor, the so-called representatives and their appointed bureaucratic adjuncts are essentially faculative invertebrates and their bullying will stop when they feel that their jobs are the least bit threatened.
Organization is the key. The unified voice of several million, representing all the partially and wholly disenfranchised in this “war” will cause a huge paradigm shift in the attitudes and policies that we’ve collectively suffered under for over 100 years (the Harrison Act of 1915 was the bang of the starter’s pistol, imoho). The addict is not our enemy. They have an illness too and the object of the State is to take this one minority population, a minority not only in terms of the entire whole, but also when counted amongst the chronic pain folks, and make them representative of all opioid utilizers. So long as the common citizen sees the addict through the morally judgmental lenses of the neopuritans and not as legitimately ill, then everyone that even remotely appears to be one of the addicted subset will be seen as part of a large, immoral enemy that threatens modern civilization.
Education of the common citizen needs to be the most important part of the agenda and so long as the Neopuritans control the dialog, it is essentially a monologue. That has to change. Getting laws passed and the arm twisting of the political class are only temporary measures. These measures need to happen to address the issue in the here and now. Changing the way that the greater whole sees all of this is the way to tomorrow and serves to permanently remedy what really amounts to a hugely sad case of discrimination and bigotry against a large group of legitimately ill human beings.
Part of the failed drug war is disseminating false information about drugs. In the past, it was about drugs like marijuana; now, it’s about opioids. While I like the idea of changing public attitudes, I think the opioid war has already been successful in its negative portrayal of these drugs. It took decades to change the way the public thought about marijuana — how long will it take to change their minds about opioids?
I think we were led here. It’s just too odd, in a perfect way…MJ gateway drug. Complete turn about, Opiates gateway drug & here comes the CDC guidelines. We all know this timing, the money spent, this package is just too pretty with it’s velvet wrapping and perfect little bow…screams SET UP! And we all got caught in the trap, never saw what hit us, until it was almost too late. Our time is almost up, the clock is ticking and we need to MOVE.
Thank you Steve! Your RX for fighting against the anti-opioid Nazis is perfect. I propose we organize a protest at the CDC offices in Atlanta as soon as humanly possible with all of the different pain patient advocacy groups willing to join in. Our very lives are at stake here. The unintended consequences of these guidelines will take a year or two to become evident and then a couple more years to fix the problem. This means that every chronic pain patient who require opioids to function on some level will have a five-year wait time. The way I see it, I have two choices: Buy heroin on the street and cross my fingers that doesn’t kill me or leave the country and move to someplace like Panama and wait this 5 year time frame out. I have a 12 year old son that I would not be able to take with me to Panama or some such other country. I would have to leave him with his father at the time in his life that he needs my daily guidance the most. So he has a choice between potentially having a dead mother or a mother who lives outside the US I will have to leave him with his father at the time and his wife that he needs my daily guidance the most. So he has a choice between potentially having a dad mother or a mother who live outside the US who can come to visit a couple times a year.
Neither choice is a good one. And for all of those chronic pain patients who were unwilling to speak out because they were ashamed that they had to take pain pills for their chronic pain condition and were happy to leave the fight to others, I can’t say I will feel too sorry for them as they suffer the consequences of their inaction. People get all hot and bothered and blame those filthy terrible drug addicts for their problem accessing their pain medication when the truth is that they they will likely be suffering due to the consequences of their inaction!
Protesting the lumping of the chronic pain community in with the addiction groups at the CDC in Atlanta is a great way to get the attention of the national and regional media and a good way to get the word out concerning the true epidemic of chronic pain in the US is a wonderful idea! Aren’t there satellite CDC offices in each of the states? Regional health departments in each state are responsible for instituting the guidelines and directives from the CDC- For those that can’t make the trip to Atlanta, couldn’t they participate on the same day at one of these locations? And connect (using Big Screen TVs) via Skype or Periscope?
Organizing is the key!- spread the word and see if we can coordinate this type of event for Spring or Summer!
Charles (Trial By Fire movie producer) could help carry the event! Jon Stewart has been fighting for care for 9/11 victims & Micheal Moore did the movie on Flint – regardless of their political affiliations, they could help by showing the public how the epidemic of chronic pain and the recent movement to address addiction at the cost of the chronic pain community
Just some thoughts!
So what are we going to do about it, >100 million?
One advocacy group that has accomplished a great deal for their state, would be demonized by another group who has had success in their own state. WE CAN’T AFFORD THIS! Yet another group seems to borrow a hodge podge of ideas from a bunch of other groups/people, but they never seem to actually DO anything. NOT PRODUCTIVE!
Patting ourselves on the back and talking about our past victories is worse than useless. It’s causing an egotistical divisiveness that we can’t afford. If there’s ANY hope of using our numbers to our advantage, we need to knock down the walls and we need to do it NOW!!!
Is anyone listening? Is there anyone who agrees? Disagrees?
ANYONE?
I agree we have to knock down the walls, think outside of the box, get all of the advocacy groups together with one united voice get all of the advocacy groups together with one United voice and do something to get National media attention. I suggested we demonstrate outside of the CDC building in Atlanta. No one has ever done that before and the national news.
TOTALLY AGREE!! but….I’m trying as we speak to circulate a # patientsnotaddicts picture to go viral in a pain group for the cause. i take very few pain meds because I am unable to…but I will be as effected as those others who take many more. I am doing so publicly with my name, everything hoping to get it viral towards an endgame at my risk even, not anyone elses!. 21 has viewed, i think only 4 likes. I’m not sure if any have shared…. soooo i would really like to know that answer. elsewhere i have 19 shares…BUT NOT ON THE PAIN SITE….i just don’t get it???
I just read a post about what our state government is spending their time on this legislative session. Since New Mexico is one of the poorest states in this country, why do you think Republicans are trying to repeal minimum wage laws? Their goal? To “lower wage costs by 30%.” I feel like I’m in Oz and the Wicked Witch is queen.
But try to get anyone in state government agencies interested in the plight of pain patients? A freaking waste of time. But I’ve seen it done on other issues:
https://www.propublica.org/article/small-group-goes-great-lengths-to-block-homeschooling-regulation
I just don’t think pain patients would be able to do something similar. Correct me if you think I’m wrong…