@Chris318 Have they done something new and more restrictive I don’t know about? You’re scaring me!
Yep, the vast majority of people who take Rx opioids are not the ones who abuse them. Something like less than 1% of Rx users abuse them. So screw the fake opioid “crisis.” Wayyyyyyyyy more people die per year from suicide or bullets, AND COVID!!!!!, than die from opioid overdose. And most of the ones who overdose are taking heroin, not prescription opioids.
Politicians clearly want to prevent doctors from using the few tools they have at hand to actually bring a patient some pain relief. And it’s never even total relief! And politicians want patients to suffer. They would much rather have it so that anyone on Medicare or Medicaid dies or kills themselves so they don’t have to pay for them.
The politicians want to take away the few options we currently have for pain relief, yet they don’t want to fund the development of new pain relief options!!! I wish they would; I don’t want to be taking opioids! Most people would much rather take something safer! I’m still taking tons of Aleve and Tylenol so I don’t have to take as many opioids as I would if I didn’t also take Aleve and Tylenol. My intestines are suffering accordingly. Pick your poison, unfortunately.
Farrrrrrrr more people took and abused opioids for the past 400 years, if not longer, when Laudanum was legal and over the counter until 1910!!!!!!!! You want to talk about a crisis?!!!!!! The “crisis“ now is nothing compared to what it was 100, 400, and thousands of years ago in China!!!
A year ago, I reluctantly began my prescription pain medication journey after treating my chronic osteoarthritic pain with just Aleve and Tylenol for the past 20 years. I take Buprenorphine film in my cheek. You’re right, it’s disgusting. But it’s what they gave me and I didn’t want to look needy, so I’ve stuck with it. At first, I tried the transdermal patch, but I got severe blisters and rashes from each of the manufacturers that make it. I do get good pain relief coverage from Belbuca, but not as good as I did from the (ugly!) 24-hour transdermal patches. Those patches also caused problems because they don’t stay affixed for seven days. I could never get one to stay on for more than three days! Maybe that’s because the rashes I got were raising the film up off my skin.
Ever notice how when politicians talk about the opioid crisis, they don’t talk about treating the real problem, which is why people would use opioids in the first place? They don’t talk about addiction treatment or psychological care, they just think that by removing opioids, they’re going to prevent their abuse. WRONG! Despite their best efforts to curb opioid prescriptions, down by 2/3 since the height of their time of “over prescribing“, the rate of overdose has actually more than tripled since then! Explain that!
God forbid the stupid politicians ever look at the real socioeconomic reasons that people are anusing opioids and treat that first, like by increasing education, funding, putting money into poor communities, providing jobs people actually want, reducing poverty, etc. Funny how their solution to stopping opioid overdose is to remove the opioids, but their solution to removing gun deaths is never to remove guns or bullets! They’re such stupid hypocrites; they drive me crazy!
Do you know America is the only country where you can’t get an injection of something that gives pain relief in an ambulance? In every other country, an Advanced EMT can give a shot of an opioid or an anti-inflammatory . That’s how stingy America is with pain treatment. And of course, ERs never give *real* pain relief, either!!!!!!! An ambulance ride itself is excruciating, even if you don’t have anything wrong! It’s the bumpiest, most-jarring thing ever, way worse than a roller coaster or a hay wagon.
Anyway, yeah, Chris, I’m right there with you.
I’m sick of politicians who have no medical training whatsoever deciding what medication I can and can’t take, on top of some rep without any medical knowledge at my insurance company screwing me over. It really would be so much easier just to take way more Tylenol and Aleve, but those things will kill you quick, way quicker than opioids! Nobody ever talks about that, either – nobody talks about how bad for the body anti-inflammatories are! They will kill you FOR SURE by the holes they eat in your entire GI system. They’ll make you bleed to death if you take them long enough. Modern day opioids have a very low chance of killing you. So which should be over the counter?!!!! I’m so sick of hearing doctors tell me to take anti-inflammatories!
Anyway, yeah, as if anybody in chronic pain needs to deal with all this bulls*it and all these road blocks. AND THEY WONDER WHY PEOPLE TURN TO HEROIN, readily available and cheap? No doctors co-pay every month. No missed time off work every month. No $5,400 in lab work every month.
I wouldn’t turn to heroin, I’d just kill myself if my pain was bad enough that I felt I needed it. But most people can’t stomach that.
None of the above is any politician’s business.
There are always things to be grateful for; thank you for the reminder.