Chronic pain patients and their doctors have been sharing their worries with the Observer since the Trump administration announced it was escalating the war on opioids.
Some have appeared in articles, more in front of a judge. Some have taken to the streets to secure their needed medication for unbearable pain, paying triple for their prescribed pills or rolling the dice with heroin. Others have ended their lives because opioids were the only thing that made the pain bearable.
Now patients are gathering April 7 at state capitols and city halls around the country for the Don’t Punish Pain rally. In Texas, they’ll be meeting at 11 a.m. at Dallas City Hall plaza to discuss how the opioid crackdown is affecting chronic pain sufferers.
But don’t expect a turnout like Saturday’s March For Our Lives gun control rallies, where thousands of students descended upon the Capitol in Austin and other states. Most people seem to agree the opioid epidemic is an issue that the government needs to control, and Texas legislators are shy about supporting patients seeking access to the drugs.
Rhonda Posey from Texas Pain Advocacy, part of a coalition of 50 such groups, is one of the organizers behind the Dallas rally. Posey said the Texas group reached out to more than a dozen legislators in Austin to get sponsorship for the permit needed to host the rally at the Capitol. The rally is in Dallas, she said, because the group couldn’t find a legislator in Austin to sponsor it.
“The Trump administration has had a tremendous impact,” she said.
Trump recently called for the death penalty for drug traffickers in order to curb the epidemic. Standing behind a backdrop that read “Opioids: The Crisis Next Door” at the White House on March 19, he praised countries like China that have laws that “don’t play games on drugs.”
“Some countries have a very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty, and they have much less of a drug problem than we do,” Trump said.
When Trump refers to drug traffickers, he isn’t simply talking about cartel mules and bikers trafficking drugs. He’s also talking about pain doctors with prescription pads. In a memo issued to federal prosecutors Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the death penalty can be sought for certain racketeering cases and for dealing extremely large quantities of drugs.
Trump plans to reduce the opioid demand and overprescribing, stop the supply of illegal drugs and boost access to treatment.
Since 1999, opioid sales have quadrupled in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 11 percent of adults experience daily chronic pain. It recently changed its guidelines for dealing with long-term opioid therapy, but they’re not intended for patients who are receiving cancer treatment, palliative care or end-of-life care. Some of those guidelines include using immediate-release opioids when starting, prescribing no more than needed, following up and re-evaluating risk of harm, and reducing tapering or discontinuing if needed.
“Opioids are not to be used as the first-line or routine therapy for chronic pain,” the CDC’s opioid guidelines sheet says.
The CDC says that more than 180,000 people have overdosed using opioids, but four researchers within the CDC recently published a paper in the American Journal of Public Health that stressed the importance of differentiating between prescription pill overdose deaths and deaths from illicit heroin or fentanyl overdoses. They say it’s necessary in order to craft appropriate prevention and response efforts.
“Unfortunately, disentangling these deaths is challenging because multiple drugs are involved,” the researchers wrote in the March 7 article. “Additionally, death certificate data do not specify whether the drugs were pharmaceutically manufactured and prescribed by a health care provider, pharmaceutically manufactured but not prescribed to the person or illicitly manufactured.”
In the meantime, chronic pain sufferers say they are being victimized and considered junkies when they go to their doctors seeking medication to manage their pain. It’s why they’re gathering April 7 at Dallas City Hall plaza.
“Chronic pain patients are cast out and left behind,” Posey said.
Filed under: General Problems
All of you chronic pain patients out there who voted for Trump, please rethink your vote! Remember when you go to polls, he kept Jeff Sessions and did nothing for the chronic pain patients.
I agree with you that Session is both a idiot and a bad choice, but let’s look at the alternatives in the last election … Clinton was also an attorney who obtained her law degree about the same time as Session – when the Controlled substance act – bill passed by a democratic controlled Congress – created the DEA… she also said that she agreed with Senator Manchin (D- WV) who floated the idea of a opiate Rx tax to tax those with chronic pain to pay for treatment of substance abuse. Obama took office in Jan 2009 and the war on the legal prescription distribution system started ramping up in 2010 – 2011.. Obama was another attorney. Eric Holder was the only AG in our country’s history that was held in contempt of Congress and Obama used some presidential power to quelch that contempt charge. For some reason, our country cannot get away from a two-party system… no other party can gain traction – unlike other countries that have multiple parties. Typically 98% of those who run for re-election will get re-elected 8-9 will be de-throned … regardless what they have done or not done… but this year 35 have announced that they are not running for re-election… RUNNING FOR THE HILLS ? I watch these candidates running for office promising that they are going to do this or that.. and the reality of it is ..if they get elected .. they will have ZERO SENIORITY and the chance of them getting something done… is NEAR ZERO… Trump is not part of “the system” and we are seeing Congress, in particular , reacting in very self-serving ways… more than they normally do… We need a valid third party candidate… Ross Perot almost did it.. but – IMO – as long as we have a 2 party system.. it is going to be like a foot ball game… one party has control of the ball for a while and then the other gets control of the ball … and mostly there is just a lot of “running around in circles “
I agree about the third party candidate. Also,I voted for Ross Perot just for some of the reasons you just stated way back then.(90’s). I still have my Ross Perot button.
Again,,I challenge 1 politician,1 opiatephob Doctor,, 1 ,”addiction b.s.,” to name 1 person who has o.d. or died from taking their MEDICINE opiates as their doctor prescribed it,,as written on the bottle..Name 1,,,,,,,,maryw
They should bring up the fact that Trump is losing his base due to this because he had supports who were pain.patients.
Also because of the failed promise to leave medical marijuana up to the states, he’s failed there too among other things like that horrendous omnibus bill that’s wasting taxpayers money. Sure it’s good some of it is going to the military but billions more wasn’t necessary.
Trump has shown that severely biased. Keeping Sessions around was a huge mistake!
To be a great president, a president has to be Fair to all Americans. The elderly and Disabled have been left out! He’s showing he doesn’t care about them.
Its not going to matter how many jobs are created. Many pain patients who were trying to continue working are having to give up and Quit. This is going to be a massive loss of support for him. But I definitely wouldn’t bring uo any RESIST movement because he will ignore that like the plague.