Until a few years ago … suicide was considered a CRIME… now we have some 6 states that have laws that makes “death with dignity” condones certain suicides within the guidelines that the state consider acceptable and reportedly a large number of states are considering passing same/similar laws.
It is still ILLEGAL to assist and/or encourage suicide.. in fact a young woman https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a28326092/michelle-carter-sentence-texting-suicide-case/
got a 30 month sentence for INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide – mostly via text messages.
prescribers, pharmacists, nurses are considered “learned professionals” and should be full aware of the consequences of denying, withholding or reducing a pt’s medication for chronic conditions – especially subjective diseases such as chronic pain, anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.
Could it be that all opiate OD deaths have been classified as “accidental overdose” because would our judicial system would have to investigate a suicide and spend money on the investigation and maybe be forced to charge someone with assisting the suicide ? But it also serves the DEA’s agenda that we have a opiate crisis that is being fueled by Rx opiates.
We know that there are abt ONE MILLION attempted suicide EVERY YEAR and that abt 50,000/yr deaths from suicide.. what we don’t know is how many of those deaths or attempts are because chronic pain pts or other pts dealing with subjective diseases are being denied their medically necessary medication. We also don’t know how many of those deaths are because those serious/dedicated substance abusers are just “sick & tired” of dealing with being “dope sick” and suffering thru going thru withdrawal and just has decided to “end it all”… and their death is not really a accident.
We have also heard of chronic pain pts leaving suicide notes that seem to “disappear” after the fact… Who would make a suicide note disappear… the relatives because they are ashamed that their relative committed suicide, because suicide would cause any/all life insurance policies to become null/void or back to the agenda of the DEA and every “body” they can count… helps their agenda of the opiate crisis.
What would happen if the person who has committed suicide, has sent out a “suicide video” or sent a registered letter to the local prosecuting attorney accusing their prescriber, pharmacist, insurance/PBM company or the company that any of these healthcare professionals work for that have established policies that caused the pt to be denied their necessary medication.
Why is it that we seldom – if ever – hear from a family member of a chronic pain pt who has committed suicide .. like we hear from family members of those who OD from a claimed opiate OD… saying… “we never want another family to go thru what we did… losing a family member to a opiate OD…” More likely one will hear from a chronic pain pt’s family after a suicide …” he/she is now at peace and out of pain “… and they get back to living their lives…
BUT… how does someone who is planning on a suicide and sends a certified “suicide letter” to the local prosecutor… who is going to get the return post card that it was signed for ? Would a prosecutor even consider taking action against the professionals or corporation that contributed to the suicide ? Could any of those entities be accused or charged with assisting suicide, involuntary manslaughter or some other law that they could legally charged with breaking and contributing to a person’s death ?
I doubt if FB, twitter, youtube or any other media outlet would allow a “suicide video” to be published or if published it would probably be quickly taken down.
Could/should the pt entrust a copy of the letter or video with another chronic pain pt friend… to send it to the media.. if the local prosecutor fails to take action ?
Probably the only place that such a letter or video could be published without immediate repercussion is with a chronic pain advocate that has their own website domain and no one that would have any authority to force it to be taken down.
Filed under: General Problems
In that case, the idiot state of Oregon should be charged with murder; it’s already more willing to prescribe opioids for assisted suicide than for chronic pain.
One of my first deep dives was into investigating how our public health systems count poisoning deaths, AKA overdose deaths. What was abundantly clear were these facts. As early as 2002, efforts were made to redefine the definition for poisonings. According to the new definition, water or even the nitrogen in the air we breath can now be labeled a toxic substance if, in sufficient quantities, it leads to a death. While technically correct, we’ve not outlawed or regulated any of these despite the fact that fresh water drownings occur as well as asphyxiations from too much nitrogen and not enough oxygen. But it did open the door to including any type of opioid as a cause of death regardless of any other drugs which may be present in greater quantities. Any death certificate that includes even a suggestion of a type of opioid which is normally considered a prescribed opioid, can now be labeled as prescription opioid death, even though another substance was the actual cause. Furthermore, this allows any grey areas which are not investigated or confirmed through toxicology to be deemed an opioid death. By doing so, there is license to inflate the numbers by having changed the rules to fit the ideological or political point of view. The deck has been stacked, the game rigged and the man behind the curtain is pulling all the levers. You can read in detail all of the dirt that has been used in this four part series. https://cergm.carter-brothers.com/2019/02/20/how-prescription-opiate-overdose-data-is-collected-part-1/