The hoops that chronic pain sufferers have to jump through are rigorous. Urine tests, contracts.

I'm sick of politicians who don't have a clue.

Many OTHER people don't recognize distinctions, and the fact that many practitioners don't enforce the rigorous hoops to which you refer.

O’Malley said he would push for a federal investment of $12 billion to help states provide the “continuum of care” that many are lacking to keep people on a safe path after detox or hospitalization and prevent relapses. He also would create a national strategy on fentanyl – the synthetic opioid much more powerful than heroin and has claimed more lives than heroin this year – within 100 days of taking office, he said.

Pointing to his record as mayor in Baltimore, where he expanded drug treatment availability by 20 percent, O’Malley said, “I promised not only to improve policing, but to improve treatment and I’ll be damned some of these government programs don’t actually work … We saved a lot of lives.”

“We struggled a lot, frankly,” he added. “We switched our goal to reducing overdose deaths.”

O’Malley said the most important indicator of whether a person is at risk for overdosing is if they have presented themselves at an emergency room with a “near-miss” once. That point, O’Malley said, is where intervention needs to happen.

I take oxycodone most days. I won't go in to the numerous procedures and drugs I've been through for pain control.

I have a degenerative condition that is horribly painful.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_regional_pain_syndrome#/search

of existing regulations are new. This new enforcement is a response to the giant epidemic of prescription drug addiction that is destroying the lives of so many. I have no idea the actual number of mothers who used to be out clinic- and ER-hopping while their kids were in school, looking for new ones that'd throw a couple prescriptions at them to make them go away, but it was a LOT.

All whole new physician-level pain management specialty has grown up around the reality that most physicians are failing their patients by lack of competence in pain management. Our daughter suffers from chronic pain and has been offered a specialist because her doctor feels she could be doing better.

ITM, far more research into pain is being funded to help those who suffer, often dreadfully, from chronic and/or intractable pain. It may be no comfort to those suffering right now, but it will be better someday.

Discussions with people with real experience is a huge asset.

experience with severe pain, though.

and there should be practitioners who can determine that and treat it properly.

I have friends who died because overprescribing was so prevalent one was fentanyl the other was oxycontin

regular medication among our friends was an OD of illegal pain medication, even possibly not accidental, due to pain. Before, he would be energetic and cheerful sometimes and drawn and snappy in an armchair too many others. They never even hinted of that kind of problem, though. This is the South and he was a good Southern Baptist.

But many people with chronic and moderate to severe pain, are having their quality of life diminished by overly cautious practitioners. I'm "lucky" in that my condition is obviously visible and was the result of a serious accident, so I don't get the suspicious treatment so many others do.

I agree.

it seems he gets lost in the shuffle

'Funny' that this issue gets him attention???

I read all of them

I don't want a goddamn Tylenol -- I want a real narcotic pain killer, like hydrocodone.

I had a toothache on a Friday. It hurt worse all day and was unbearable by the time I left work. Thank the Gods that the nurse at the walk-in clinic gave me what I asked for.

It's always worked well for me.

I've had a few toothaches. Hydrocodone works for me without a doubt.

and pain due to terminal illness is not the solution.


No thank you MOM.

...of the fear of dependency and/or FDA scrutiny. Its patients who suffer the most from this type of policy.

I have a friend write now in a nursing home dying of cancer whose doctor denied him more pain meds because "overprescription" hysteria. My friend is suffering. They tell him he will get better pain meds in hospice when the end it near. But for now, he gets to suffer.

A study that recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a significant decrease in opiate overdoses in states that have adopted and implemented medical marijuana laws compared to states that have not.

The authors showed that although opiate overdoses rose in states without medical marijuana laws during 2009-2010, they dropped by approximately 25 percent in states with medical marijuana laws during that same period. While these data cannot show a causal relationship between the passage of medical marijuana laws and a decrease in opiate overdoses, they are consistent what medical marijuana patients have been saying for years, that they are consciously choosing medical cannabis over pharmaceutical drugs."
http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/prescription-painkiller-deaths-fall-almost-25-medical-marijuana-states

So there's the part Martin leaves out while going after pain patients, talking about police, churches and rehabs of course but no mention of the one thing that seems to bring a great deal of harm reduction into this cycle for many people.
Here's another one:
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-medical-marijuana-20140826-story.html

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has signed a proposal into law which explicitly legalizes medical cannabis; the measure, House Bill 1321medical-marijuana-symbol, will take effect on July 1st. 2014.

Under the new law, the possession and use of medical cannabis will be legal those with a qualifying condition such as cancer or chronic pain who receive a recommendation from a physician. The bill will establish a minimum of 94 dispensaries throughout the state to distribute cannabis to patients, and will authorize state-licensed cultivation centers.

http://thejointblog.com/medical-cannabis-legalization-bill-signed-law-maryland-governor/

indications that excellent reduction rates follow medical marijuana and yet he does not mention this. He should.

Ample supplies of high quality heroin on our streets, and Afghanistan is the world's #1 supplier. Funny how that works.

Seems it would be worth at least a mention in discussing this problem.

This is just another facet of the war on drugs.

Are there people that over prescribe? Are there people that become addicted? Yes to both.

Is it a crisis? No.

We are now going through one of these cycles where due to an increase in overdose deaths and an overall failure in identifying problem patients and helping them get help there is a now a strong impetus to throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Pain is a something that is subjective, not always obvious to a 3rd party observer--and can completely eliminate all quality of life. Access to opiates when you have chronic, constant pain is essential. The truth of the matter is that over 95% of those prescribed opiate pain medication will not become addicted regardless of how liberal the doctor prescribing is. Between 2-5% of this population will misuse, abuse, and end up habituated.

This post seems to favor draconian restriction in pain medication prescription.

I think that is an extreme and absurd position.

There already has been significant restriction is pain medication prescription reported anecdotally and there has been reported a corresponding increase is heroin overdose deaths as these patients (addicts) seek their fix any way they can find it.

What is not being reported is that all those patients who are in pain not deemed sufficient for opiate prescription are simply not getting the pain relief they need.

Pain should be relieved with opiates when it is present.

I've had back problems off and on since I injured my back when I was 29. I've found that opiates often allow the healing to begin. In other words, they're not just masking the pain but they enable my body to enter into a state of healing relaxation. Once this happens my problem quickly resolves itself--usually. I've had one bout of prolonged pain that was only ultimately resolved with spinal steroid injections.

I'd been taking larger and larger doses of opiates over a 6 month period. Once I received the injection and the pain went away I stopped taking the opiates and within a few days found that I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. I looked it up online and found that the symptoms would abate in about 72 hours. I never once had the urge to call my doctor and try to get more. I was heartily sick of taking hydrocodone and oxycodone by that time. I would argue that I'm more the norm rather than some sort of strange exception.

Today I would have probably been cut off and would have just had to suffer. That might have led to an inability to work and led to full disability eventually. As it was, I missed only a couple of days of work during this period and never had to leave a job.

Pain when it exists needs to be relieved. To force doctors and patients to worry about potential addiction rather than addressing the problem of pain immediately at hand is a warping of the doctor patient relationship--especially when it is well documented that only a small minority of patients are actually at risk of developing addiction.

I think there is little compelling evidence that there is an opiate problem in this country. I believe there is very compelling evidence that opiate addiction hot spots in this country are being caused by a lack of economic hope and opportunity.

Indeed there is emerging research that is showing that addiction (all drugs) seems to emerge in populations that live in hopeless stressful environments. Remove the stress and addiction often self corrects except in the most intractable individuals. For example, the local hot spot for opiate abuse and addiction in my area is in south Dallas--an area known for rampant high unemployment, grinding poverty, failing schools, and low quality dilapidated housing.

The sick and elderly in this particular neighborhood show a high rate of opiate addiction and this is where you'll also find a concentration of shady "pain management" centers--some of which keep getting busted.

So which came first? The chicken or the egg? Was it the poverty, unemployment, lousy schools, and dismal outlook for the future? Or was it the opiates?

Opiate addiction, where it actually exists, is the symptom of a systemic societal problem. It is not the problem itself.

O'Malley should look at how to relieve the endemic poverty that drives the addiction rather than targeting just the addiction.

Anyone who supports the current DEA campaign to limit opiate prescription advocates an extreme solution to a problem that really doesn't fully exist.

Wish I was that articulate.

Are you saying I'm nuts or articulate? Or nuts and articulate?

It is that they would rather prescribe pain meds instead of working on operations. That is my case. I have been chasing a CT operation for 2 years now (which led to my current home problem http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027472479. More pain, more meds. Now morphine (20's)and percocet (10s)...The pain without them is suicidal, so what choice is there? I know that the pain will become greater and the meds stronger the longer it takes.
I never take the Percs and am three behind my morphine for the month, but most can't do that. I may not next month.

My healthcare story here http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027031413

I have a friend that has a script for 240 norco's a month and always runs out. Her whole family takes a lot of pain killers, opiates all. But what are the alternatives? I've tried about everything and some cannabis based meds do work well, but they are incredibly expensive.

So many people with chronic pain. What will people do when they run out or get their scripts lowered? The laws have made it tough enough with having to see the pain doc every month (which probably means the doctors make out pretty well by having to see his patients (addicts) to renew scripts. My doc has a pain division in order to see the once monthly addiction (patient) parade. They do other things, such as cortisone injection which I am up to my second of three and therapy, but their main thing is prescribing drugs.
What is the alternative? When it comes to opiate addiction leading to heroin addiction, well once you don't have healthcare, you need alternatives and you can buy street drugs with five bucks instead of paying for a full script...?

Obamacare should fix this when the addicts become part of the HC system, but that will be the last group to get on. Obamacare will also be great in regards to the Ritalin Generation when they turn into adults. By keeping their healthcare means the drugs they have been using (speed) will still be readily available instead of having to get drugs on the street.