Reading These Articles Angers Me

[painstaking]

U.S. war on drugs moves to pharmacy from jungle - Yahoo! News

Reading these articles day after day angers me so much. I cannot understand the DEA's stance on this. Contrary to their statements, their war on Prescription Medication is obviously affecting legitimate CP patients very much.

When I read about horrible stories about American citizens in excruciating pain who cannot receive the medication that they need, that they have to take, it makes me so angry at our government.

I understand their objective. I agree their is a significant drug abuse problem. What I don't understand is how they have no empathy for those that need the medications. Their statements about showing the whip to the horse further reinforce this. By using that tactic, they are not cleaning up the system, they are removing it all together. These pharmacies and wholesalers are not able to say this script is good and that one is bad.....instead they are simply curtailing the sales of controlled substances as a whole. And the effect of this = legitimate CP patients suffering for no good reason. Either there is a supply shortage, the wholesaler won't sell it, the pharmacy won't order it to sell, or the doctor's are too scared to even write it.

I am a libertarian and the nanny state ideology bothers me. But politics aside, if they want to curtail the epidemic of drug abuse, their are better methods. And imo if no other method will work, then the current method still has no place in America, because any operation that punishes the innocent as a known side effect is unconstitutional.

[teresita]

@painstaking Oh I agree so whole heartedly with what you posted. I currently have a situation where I am trying to help my mother taper off of hydro. She is 84 and has been on some form of hydro for a few years and they have cut her off cold turkey before with awlful suffering but no one cared except me, and my friends here. Now her doctor rx'd 60 tabs on the 6th and gave me instructions to have her cut down since this will be her final rx I already have her down to 3 pills a day but any less, she feels sick and pain spikes. But then I work with 20-30 yr old men who have scripts for 180 10/325s and it makes no sense. I understand about the respiratory depression aspect if she were to take too many but she doesnt so why cut her off completely????

There has got to be a better way to distinguish abuse vs need. And a doctor should have that decision to make, not the government.

[Good Apollo]

I agree the affected non target population should not suffer. But those to blame we're correctly named in the article; pill mills, script happy docs, and pharmacy and big Pharma not utilizing existing controls, @painstaking. If those systems were utilized correctly, the prob would have been minimized long before Florida became pill haven for the US...

I think it's understandable to be upset by not being able to get meds one legitimately needs... But the DEA should enforce existing controls- if not the mandates from congress will only get more strict, and like it or not, that'll only make it harder for legitimate pain patients to receive their meds.

[SecretAgentWoman]

oh, but we HAVE to be protected from the dangerous criminals such as this Texas woman: Woman Jailed For Trying To Fill A Prescription « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Don't you see? She could have hurt....something. Someone. Maybe. With her crutches! Weapons and drugs don't mix! Just say no!

[Richh]

Thank you for that post. We are all pretty mad at the nanny states we have become having to live w/pain, no sleep, and the stress they inflict upon us. The doctors have no compassion and who knows our bodies better than us? NO ONE! The doctor can't feel the pain or see you up at night sleepless in agony or stressed to the max every time you turn the news on TV. WE KNOW OUR OWN BODIES leave us alone to care for ourselves. A dr we see once a year has no clue nor does he care. He is well paid and we are supposed to live with pain. Nice Post it really is infuriating.

[Perromaldido]

@teresita Now that doctor is a real professional bastard. How can you do that to an old lady who's been on hydro for years? Does he think she is going to benfit from wds at her age? Either he knows NOTHING about what she's on or he's pure evil. Actually so many doctors are so ignorant when it comes to opiates medications....now do they really believe in the idiocy that wants wds to be a three-forur days inconvenience as a small flu? I'd really would like fo feed him a couple of years on 120mgs Oxy a day then tell him out of the blue ''hey here are your last 30 80's make a good use of them'' *******.

[poppy13]

unbelievable!!! ugh i live in florida and was just reading the other day about people in jacksonville not even being able to fill thier legal scrpits of any pain meds.im talking cancer patients!! unbelievable!!!freakin dea what a bunch of idiots!!