As doctors taper or end opioid prescriptions......

[Maddog]

.... many patients driven to despair, suicide.

It happened slowly. The pain caused by a 1980 back fracture, the result of a tractor-trailer crash, crippled more and more of Jay Lawrence’s body and spirit.

By 2006, the Tennessee native and Navy veteran’s arms and legs were going numb. The excruciating pain reduced him to tears. Multiple surgeries, chiropractic adjustments, and physical therapy didn’t work.

He finally found solace in prescription painkillers – 120 milligrams a day of morphine. A high dose, but it dulled the pain enough for him to take walks with his wife, shop for groceries, even take in a few movies.

But last February, the pain clinic doctor delivered jarring news: He was cutting Lawrence’s daily dosage, first to 90 milligrams then, in short stages, down to 30 milligrams. The doctor said the reduced dosage was in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribing guidelines released in 2016 as part of a national anti-opioid push, according to Lawrence’s wife, Meredith.

“The doctor said: ‘You know these guidelines are going to become a law eventually. So we've decided as a group that we're going to take all of our patients down,’” she told Fox News in an interview.

Lawrence’s pain returned with a vengeance. He could barely move or sleep. He soiled his pants, unable to make the bathroom in time, Meredith said.

“It feels like every nerve in my body is on fire,” he told his wife.

Meredith said she and her husband went to their primary care physician and asked for a referral to another pain clinic. They were told it would take a minimum of six weeks.

That was too much for Lawrence. In March, on the day of his next medical appointment, when his painkiller dosage was to be reduced again, he instead went to a nearby park with his wife. And on the very spot where they renewed their wedding vows just two years earlier, they held hands.

He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself.


https://www.foxnews.com/health/as-opioi ... to-suicide

[Wilson]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

[Maddog]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

[calitom]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

this is a very tough call.opioid abuse is rampant...but many people need these drugs due to horrific conditions..and others have become addicted and are going thru that hell
online drug companies are getting shut out of the us market as well. some people i know have stocked up on some products before the jan 1st deadline because the online companies are getting shut down.

online companies will still be out there...but its riskier9 not because of drug quality but because of law enforcement issues .
ps- The most recent Jack Reacher novel deals with this

[Wilson]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

Of course it's about money. It's also about an ideology that relies on the majority of Americans believing that not having a National Health Service is for your own good.

[Maddog]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

Of course it's about money. It's also about an ideology that relies on the majority of Americans believing that not having a National Health Service is for your own good.

Go back and read the article without an agenda. This is the CDC recommending these cut backs.

[Cactus Jack]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

Of course it's about money. It's also about an ideology that relies on the majority of Americans believing that not having a National Health Service is for your own good.

Go back and read the article without an agenda. This is the CDC recommending these cut backs.

Try taking your own advice.

Having had a back issue for years I know that opiates are the 'profitable' option for healthcare and prevention and rehabilitation are long term losers for them. Painkillers don't address the underlying issues and more and stronger painkillers are only a road to perdition. Fortunately being under a socialised medical care system whose interest are my health not their profits I was given physiotherapy and advised on adjustments to lifestyle include my career that mean my chronic back pain is now mostly manageable with over the counter medications (and trust me over the counter medications in the UK are massively less potent in the UK than in the US)

Had a situation where I was not only allowed but encouraged to become addicted to opiates arisen and were I then told that my opiates were going to be withdrawn I would be in a much worse position. Once again because you don't understand the nuances behind what you post you end up proving the exact opposite of what you want to say.

This is not a new experience for you I know

[Rolluplostinspace]

I've been on prescription opiates for God knows how long now.
I'm guessing about four years give or take a year either way.
I haven't had to face going without in that time but I'm ready to bring myself off.
Because I'm on time release tabs I can't break one in half and cut down that way so .... I have a stash of dihydroCodeine.
I'll use them to ease the pain of withdrawal.
This what I'm on ..... http://www.awmsg.org/awmsgonline/app/appraisalinfo/651

[calitom]

I've been on prescription opiates for God knows how long now.
I'm guessing about four years give or take a year either way.
I haven't had to face going without in that time but I'm ready to bring myself off.
Because I'm on time release tabs I can't break one in half and cut down that way so .... I have a stash of dihydroCodeine.
I'll use them to ease the pain of withdrawal.
This what I'm on ..... http://www.awmsg.org/awmsgonline/app/appraisalinfo/651

Best of luck on that jack. Hopefully you can find a replacement that will work properly for you. Any ideas from anyone on replacements.?

[calitom]

Heartbreaking. Some things should NEVER come with a price tag.
The UK seems to be trying to emulate this cruel nonsense. I hope your country is waking up Maddog.

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

Of course it's about money. It's also about an ideology that relies on the majority of Americans believing that not having a National Health Service is for your own good.

Go back and read the article without an agenda. This is the CDC recommending these cut backs.

Try taking your own advice.

Having had a back issue for years I know that opiates are the 'profitable' option for healthcare and prevention and rehabilitation are long term losers for them. Painkillers don't address the underlying issues and more and stronger painkillers are only a road to perdition. Fortunately being under a socialised medical care system whose interest are my health not their profits I was given physiotherapy and advised on adjustments to lifestyle include my career that mean my chronic back pain is now mostly manageable with over the counter medications (and trust me over the counter medications in the UK are massively less potent in the UK than in the US)

Had a situation where I was not only allowed but encouraged to become addicted to opiates arisen and were I then told that my opiates were going to be withdrawn I would be in a much worse position. Once again because you don't understand the nuances behind what you post you end up proving the exact opposite of what you want to say.

This is not a new experience for you I know

oh stop with that holier than thou silliness. you think 'socialized health care ' is more caring than other systems?? keep living your fantasy. We HAVE socialized medicine in the usa--its called medicare..or veterans administration..or Medicaid. Not impressive and not more compassionate.
If you want to think with emotion and fantasy then go on believing that socialized medicine is more compassionate. Some docs and hospitals are more compassionate--depending on the damn docs and hospitals. The USA has been leaning toward the socialistic system for decades now with HMOs like Kaiser. Trust me Kaiser is not more compassionate than other hospital chains.And Medicare certainly is not more compassionate.-And Obamacare--the first step toward single payer---is a cruel dumbass piece of shit which was actually created to fail.The damn designer of it--one of the prinicipals--even admitted it on TAPE!!!!!! He was expressing happiness that the US public was dumb enough to believe that Obamacare was gonna be financially viable. Yea ask people who have Obamacare. The only ones with a good deal are those with zero money. The working poor and middle class get screwed. I happen to be in the system.My patients have come in with their obamacare with big premiums and massive deductibles. In other words Obamacare for most people is horrible--Like having no insurance.-And they stole from medicaid to make it look like it was financially viable.
The old insurance companies were and are big monsters..but they run/ran efficiently and gave the public excellent care.-They are also scumbags who do have to be watched.
Thats why both repubes and dims want to assure those with pre-existing conditions that they get covered.

[Rolluplostinspace]

Try taking your own advice.

Having had a back issue for years I know that opiates are the 'profitable' option for healthcare and prevention and rehabilitation are long term losers for them. Painkillers don't address the underlying issues and more and stronger painkillers are only a road to perdition. Fortunately being under a socialised medical care system whose interest are my health not their profits I was given physiotherapy and advised on adjustments to lifestyle include my career that mean my chronic back pain is now mostly manageable with over the counter medications (and trust me over the counter medications in the UK are massively less potent in the UK than in the US)

Had a situation where I was not only allowed but encouraged to become addicted to opiates arisen and were I then told that my opiates were going to be withdrawn I would be in a much worse position. Once again because you don't understand the nuances behind what you post you end up proving the exact opposite of what you want to say.

This is not a new experience for you I know[/quote]

oh stop with that holier than thou silliness. you think 'socialized health care ' is more caring than other systems?? keep living your fantasy. We HAVE socialized medicine in the usa--its called medicare..or veterans administration..or Medicaid. Not impressive and not more compassionate.
If you want to think with emotion and fantasy then go on believing that socialized medicine is more compassionate. Some docs and hospitals are more compassionate--depending on the damn docs and hospitals. The USA has been leaning toward the socialistic system for decades now with HMOs like Kaiser. Trust me Kaiser is not more compassionate than other hospital chains.And Medicare certainly is not more compassionate.-And Obamacare--the first step toward single payer---is a cruel dumbass piece of shit which was actually created to fail.The damn designer of it--one of the prinicipals--even admitted it on TAPE!!!!!! He was expressing happiness that the US public was dumb enough to believe that Obamacare was gonna be financially viable. Yea ask people who have Obamacare. The only ones with a good deal are those with zero money. The working poor and middle class get screwed. I happen to be in the system.My patients have come in with their obamacare with big premiums and massive deductibles. In other words Obamacare for most people is horrible--Like having no insurance.-And they stole from medicaid to make it look like it was financially viable.
The old insurance companies were and are big monsters..but they run/ran efficiently and gave the public excellent care.-They are also scumbags who do have to be watched.
Thats why both repubes and dims want to assure those with pre-existing conditions that they get covered.[/quote]



Tom America are around twentieth from the top of the league when it comes to quality of healthcare.
Socialized healthcare in the countries that have it is nothing like Obama care.

[Rolluplostinspace]

I've been on prescription opiates for God knows how long now.
I'm guessing about four years give or take a year either way.
I haven't had to face going without in that time but I'm ready to bring myself off.
Because I'm on time release tabs I can't break one in half and cut down that way so .... I have a stash of dihydroCodeine.
I'll use them to ease the pain of withdrawal.
This what I'm on ..... http://www.awmsg.org/awmsgonline/app/appraisalinfo/651

Best of luck on that jack. Hopefully you can find a replacement that will work properly for you. Any ideas from anyone on replacements.?

I'll probably go illegal and use a vaporizer for cannabis.
I was interviewed for a cannabis prescription before going on the opiates.
I was refused.
When I asked why I had been refused I was told I knew to much about cannabis
I said to the doctor so you don't want informed patients?
It's not that it's that you might abuse it.
My reply was If I want cannabis I can buy it without difficulty as can anyone.
If I wanted to drink the contents of the spray can then that wouldn't take a lot of knowledge about cannabis and I'd then be left with no medicine for the rest of the month.
That's the way this thing works at the moment.
So you'd rather get me addicted to basically heroin thereby giving me more problems than you're reliving.? We'll review it in a year or two he says.
Forget it ... I'll become a junkie through the NHS and should I decide I want cannabis I'll go out and buy some because I wouldn't want to trouble you.
Recently I've heard they are lifting a lot of restrictions on it so I might just end up with NHS cannabis which is one hundred percent pure THC in a spray bottle .... Sativex.
One of the main shareholders being the prime ministers husband.
We can't take our drugs but we can take theirs .... maybe.

[Maddog]

Again, this is the CDC and the government directing this cutback. There are people that need these drugs and they aren't getting them. That's why they will.go to such lengths to get them and blow their fucking brains out when they dont get them. The doctors, drug companies and insurance companies will provide them. It's the government punishing those that actually need them, because of the abuse by those that don't.

[Maddog]

"The CDC guidelines...have been hijacked and weaponized as an excuse for draconian legislation."

— Michael Schatman, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pain Reseach

[Cactus Jack]

I don't thinks it's money. Because people abuse these drugs and kill themselves, the governmnet is trying to wean people who need it, off the medication. It doesn't matter what the cost of the drug is.

Of course it's about money. It's also about an ideology that relies on the majority of Americans believing that not having a National Health Service is for your own good.

Go back and read the article without an agenda. This is the CDC recommending these cut backs.

Try taking your own advice.

Having had a back issue for years I know that opiates are the 'profitable' option for healthcare and prevention and rehabilitation are long term losers for them. Painkillers don't address the underlying issues and more and stronger painkillers are only a road to perdition. Fortunately being under a socialised medical care system whose interest are my health not their profits I was given physiotherapy and advised on adjustments to lifestyle include my career that mean my chronic back pain is now mostly manageable with over the counter medications (and trust me over the counter medications in the UK are massively less potent in the UK than in the US)

Had a situation where I was not only allowed but encouraged to become addicted to opiates arisen and were I then told that my opiates were going to be withdrawn I would be in a much worse position. Once again because you don't understand the nuances behind what you post you end up proving the exact opposite of what you want to say.

This is not a new experience for you I know

oh stop with that holier than thou silliness. you think 'socialized health care ' is more caring than other systems?? keep living your fantasy. We HAVE socialized medicine in the usa--its called medicare..or veterans administration..or Medicaid. Not impressive and not more compassionate.
If you want to think with emotion and fantasy then go on believing that socialized medicine is more compassionate. Some docs and hospitals are more compassionate--depending on the damn docs and hospitals. The USA has been leaning toward the socialistic system for decades now with HMOs like Kaiser. Trust me Kaiser is not more compassionate than other hospital chains.And Medicare certainly is not more compassionate.-And Obamacare--the first step toward single payer---is a cruel dumbass piece of shit which was actually created to fail.The damn designer of it--one of the prinicipals--even admitted it on TAPE!!!!!! He was expressing happiness that the US public was dumb enough to believe that Obamacare was gonna be financially viable. Yea ask people who have Obamacare. The only ones with a good deal are those with zero money. The working poor and middle class get screwed. I happen to be in the system.My patients have come in with their obamacare with big premiums and massive deductibles. In other words Obamacare for most people is horrible--Like having no insurance.-And they stole from medicaid to make it look like it was financially viable.
The old insurance companies were and are big monsters..but they run/ran efficiently and gave the public excellent care.-They are also scumbags who do have to be watched.
Thats why both repubes and dims want to assure those with pre-existing conditions that they get covered.

First - for Christmas ask for a comma.

Next - I assume that verbiage was inspired by opiate abuse and would appreciate a version in English.

Third your rant did not contain one verifiable fact so let's give you just one to play with - in 2013 Adults in most comparable countries had quicker access to a doctor or nurse when they need care than those in the US.

And to finish a useful tip. Throwing words with no substance behind them doesn't impress anyone so do not think, suppose or imagine that your fact free rants cut any ice.