And I have never done an illegal drug. I also have a college degree, just received it in the mail though. Hopefully it will translate into some kind of job.

I use to be in charge of human resources with a major retailer.....
So if your interested in that area, get back with me..

Realistically I will need a 4 year degree to get a job where that translates well. I do have a lot of retail experience though, but most of that was working on a dock, which I can no longer do. I was a cashier for a year.

What major retailers are around you? I had a career with Saks Fifth Ave in N.Y. and Los Angeles...Tell me your strengths. Operations or Merchandising... You can email me if you’d like....

opiate pain meds are addicts and deserve to be treated as such.

From the last guidelines I had to do a drug conference with my doctor and when we started the conference I said I would only do this if I could get adequate pain relief in my life because for 50 years I had not had enough for various personal and health reasons but advancing age and declining vigor meant I could no longer cope. As a result of that conference my pain meds dosages were tripled (I manage to get by with only twice as much as I was taking), one additional added and I was referred to a pain clinic to try to run down what is ailing me and perhaps cure.

What is ailing me is chronic Lyme Disease which is, for political reasons only like being a leper or early AIDS patient. Even if you are taken seriously the insurance companies have tied the hands of the doctors and the people at the CDC/FDA have financial ties to the Lyme vaccine which we killed because they approved one that was a killer of people who were genetically predisposed to it but money won out in that argument in 1993 during a showdown in Congress that nobody but Lyme patients know about and again in 1995 when it was approved A lifelong autoimmune disease, ala MS, lifelong depression that is mostly a problem when the other things are uncontrolled and and oversensitive, overreaching immune system, again we know what is wrong but it has no name and no easy management or cure. Therefore pain meds are what work to keep me moving, able to eat and moving always makes people better. The Lyme is in remission after a year of experimental triple antibiotic treatment the first time since 1975/

So I have to go to a pain clinic and plead my case with an ambiguous diagnosis and a need for what they can provide. What they want to provide are the new, expensive live long management medicines, no doubt why the ruling came down with the horrendous side effects you hear on TV. Lyrica, Celebrex, Neurotin, etc. My word that I am better off with the few Vicodin I need to function a day, up because of my aging not even close to a large dose are now suspect and make me most likely a criminal. The difference in cost used to be $20 for my Vicodin and now I need to see a doctor every month $120 and get tests $120 and try all these other non-cure frankendrugs they are pushing now at between $225-$600 a month plus the pills to mitigate the side effects.

I will do it because I have no addictions, no vices, no abuses and I am the perfect one to prove to them that this whole things is an expensive, cruel folly. Wish me luck you may need my success in this one day in order to afford to be pain free when you need it most.

Do we need to go to some special pain clinic - or can we just keep seeing the doctors we have been seeing?

And your take on it that this is all about the Big Pharma companies trying to get people switched over to Neurotin, lyrica etc is probably close to the truth.

Mine was willing to continue with me but thought it might be a good idea to get another opinion and then have access to some alternative medicines and specialists I don't already see.

Racism.

And when you are black - and affluent/well educated - the same people smack you in the face and tell you that you are only successful because some white guy took a hit.

Truthfully? We can't win for trying . . .

haters are going to hate no matter

It fits right in with the notion that the rich are blessed and the poor did something to displease God.

See? God rewards your faith by showering you with riches.

Oh wait,...isn't it the Devil that tempts you to sell your soul for wealth and fame?

I can never keep these mythological critters separate...

Florida Gov. Rick Scott owned a chain of private medical facilities that gets paid to administer those drug tests. Couple corruption like that with the desire to reduce payments for whatever reason, and all that's left is to sell the idea. Public approval of such policies is the saddest part, but it stems from the stereotypes you speak of, which have been prevalent on the right for a long time.

I'm sure the fact that we have the highest percentage of people in prison is totally unrelated to the number of corporate-run prisons.

Logic does not apply. It doesn't matter. It plants the notion that those who need help are just lazy drug users.

It boils down to simple racism.

drug addicts just happen to be poor because they spend all their money on drugs. Unless they are millionaires or in the entertainment industry, I think the drugs make them poor if they are in deep enough with it - not that being poor makes you take drugs, although I guess it could go that way sometimes too. I'm just saying.

Of course you cannot assume all welfare recipients are drug takers, I reckon a good share are not. I do not know if testing is fair, I mean most people nowadays are tested when getting a new job. The problem I see is cost mainly.

A while back I was on assistance. I was told that if I had a drug problem but refused rehab (that Medicaid would pay for, btw), then I was entitled to nothing. If they found out I was taking drugs when I told them I was not, I could get in trouble for welfare fraud. Of course I have never used illicit drugs so I had nothing to worry about.

Of course the money I got would never have supported a drug habit anyway, even if I did not need to spend the cash on anything else. I would think that a drug addict would still have to beg, borrow, steal or prostitute themselves even with assistance.

That's what happened in Florida.