American Pain Foundation Shuts Down

[H20shed65]

Hi All,

I thought this might be of interest to other PR members and as such I have included a link to the Huffington Post Article regarding this topic. Those members dealing with chronic pain issues may find this of interest. Full disclosure: Another PR member @Utopiate brought this to my attention so I wish to give credit where credit is due.

American Pain Foundation Shuts Down As Senators Investigate Prescription Narcotics

[Syncopated]

Looks like more posturing between the political elite and the economic elite. 90% of the APF's funding came from... big pharma. Yuck.

[GoingBananas]

I find it interesting that the media has influenced us to the point where we will look at this information, whatever it is, without asking the most important question...

Why?

Is it a group of concerned people worried about their fellows because of medication and health issues?

I think not.
Sadly, not even close.

Thanks for that article by the way, it was interesting to see all the channels involved.
i had the thought it is too bad there is not an underground stock market.
I would be putting a lot of money into underground narcotics stock right about now.
I have a feeling the price is going UP!

[Utopiate]

from my earlier posts on this problem:

Political pressure groups Propublica, Public Citizen (founded by Ralph Nader) and The Washington Post produced scathing articles about APF last December.

They attacked the manufacturers of Darvocet and got it taken off the market. They attacked the American Pain Foundation and now that organization is gone. When shady advocacy groups starts getting successful conquests like that under their belt they can become dangerous. Why are they attacking pain relief for crying out loud? That's what I'd like to see, a special report done on . . . the McCarthyism of puritanical groups that want all of us to mimic their ideals and who actually succeed at bullying the rest of us into compliance.

***

The number of deaths from prescription medication is minuscule when compared to the deaths from street drugs and alcohol. The argument being used to promote this witch hunt is completely specious.

If these groups and senators were really concerned about accidental overdoses, they would work to make it possible for people to take the pain and anxiety medication they need under medical supervision. Instead they are worsening the problem by making doctors afraid to prescribe and monitor their patients safely.

[ryan424242]

It is too bad that they want to make it so difficult for people on pain to get their meds. Just because there are people who take them for getting high. And of course the government feels the need to protect people from themselves and their own actions. No one is expected to be accountable for their own actions. You couldn't possibly know pain killers were addictive, because you must live under a rock.

[Hugo]

It's a damned shame.

[deadhorse]

***

The number of deaths from prescription medication is minuscule when compared to the deaths from street drugs and alcohol. The argument being used to promote this witch hunt is completely specious.

.[/QUOTE]

I dont know about that, Ive read prescription drugs kill more people than H and coke combined.
Still this is a damn shame they are closing this down, drug abuse will not be affected, but pain patients will be affected negatively. Its hard enough as it is already, I am starting to believe that once these people get so much money, money doesnt make them happy anymore, only human suffering

[Stevo1]

Hi All,

I thought this might be of interest to other PR members and as such I have included a link to the Huffington Post Article regarding this topic. Those members dealing with chronic pain issues may find this of interest. Full disclosure: Another PR member @Utopiate brought this to my attention so I wish to give credit where credit is due.

American Pain Foundation Shuts Down As Senators Investigate Prescription Narcotics

I posted about this 3 weeks ago....Here is the link to the thread
http://www.pharmacyreviewer.com/foru...3rd-*****.html
It is a real bummer!!!

[H20shed65]

I posted about this 3 weeks ago....Here is the link to the thread
http://www.pharmacyreviewer.com/foru...3rd-*****.html
It is a real bummer!!!

Stevo,

My apologies for duplicate posting! Someone passed this info along to me and I thought it was interesting. I wll check before posting a new thread
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

[alumni]

The number of deaths from prescription medication is minuscule when compared to the deaths from street drugs and alcohol. The argument being used to promote this witch hunt is completely specious.

You should update yourself on these statistics if you are going to accuse this argument of being "specious." I believe you will find that it's not.
And no one should be surprised at where the money was coming from to support the APF and other similar organizations dealing with this issue.
Individual chronic pain sufferers definitely need to express their views in a coordinated way but the underlying agenda from pharmaceutical manufacturers (which went unrecognized for a very long time) was eventually going to hit daylight and muddy the real message. Like what's happening now.

[Stevo1]

Stevo,

My apologies for duplicate posting! Someone passed this info along to me and I thought it was interesting. I wll check before posting a new thread
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

No apology necessary! I was just tying the threads together

[tirednurse]

In my profession we are not supposed to judge if a patient is in pain or not. Pain is what the patient, person states it is. People also have different tolerances to pain, what may be an acceptable pain level for one person may be excruciating for another. I am saddened that our society is taking a step back in regards to dealing with this issue. I have come across many cases in my practice in which practicioners will not give pain meds to those who are in desperate need of them. Some of these issues are end of life issues. I had one doc who refused to prescribe morphine for an end stage COPD patient who had terrible difficulty breathing. I had to threaten to call a palliative care doc. before I could get the order. I know this may be a little off the original topic but I had to vent because I deal with these kind of issues on a daily basis and it is very frustrating when you are in the profession of promoting comfort.

[Bs0]

In my profession we are not supposed to judge if a patient is in pain or not. Pain is what the patient, person states it is. People also have different tolerances to pain, what may be an acceptable pain level for one person may be excruciating for another. I am saddened that our society is taking a step back in regards to dealing with this issue. I have come across many cases in my practice in which practicioners will not give pain meds to those who are in desperate need of them. Some of these issues are end of life issues. I had one doc who refused to prescribe morphine for an end stage COPD patient who had terrible difficulty breathing. I had to threaten to call a palliative care doc. before I could get the order. I know this may be a little off the original topic but I had to vent because I deal with these kind of issues on a daily basis and it is very frustrating when you are in the profession of promoting comfort.

It's a big matter of control... Too many people want to regulate what you can do. I always wonder why something like pain medication is heavily regulated when it is not something that is going to affect people besides yourself. Shoot, some people are into climbing dangerous places... That's much more risky than pain medication, and fully legal.

[Utopiate]

You should update yourself on these statistics if you are going to accuse this argument of being "specious." I believe you will find that it's not.
And no one should be surprised at where the money was coming from to support the APF and other similar organizations dealing with this issue.

Yes, the statistics I am relying on are 3 years old. But I'll stand with The Lancet's special report "Alcohol and Global Health" published June 26, 2009 where Canadian researchers reported that 1 in every 25 deaths can be attributed to alcohol.

And I know I am lacking a source for number of deaths attributable to pain medicine. But, since those medicines are often used at the end of life, I expect it would be very difficult to compute an appropriate figure for comparison to the alcohol deaths.

I certainly wasn't surprised that pharmaceutical companies gave money to the foundation, I'd known that for a long time. But The Washington Post was shocked! shocked and appalled!