It's Tragic And Wrong That We Force People In Terrible Pain To "Tough It Out"
We've made it too personally risky for doctors to prescribe pain meds for those who are suffering.
I have worked to become somebody psychologically brave, but physically, I am barely woman enough to deal with a really bad cold. Okay, maybe not that bad, but not all that far from it.
This is a post from January 31, 2017, but I only saw it recently -- it was tweeted by science reporter Maia Szlalavitz (@maiasz), author of "Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction."
The post is Dennis Prager's column, titled "Why My Stepsons' Father Killed Himself." Prager writes:
Last week, my two stepsons' father, a man who loved life, killed himself.I would like to tell you why.
Two years ago, a 62-year-old father of three named Bruce Graham was standing on a ladder, inspecting his roof for a leak, when it slipped out from under him. He landed on top of the ladder on his back, breaking several ribs, puncturing a lung and tearing his intestine, which wasn't detected until he went into septic shock. Following surgery, he lapsed into a two-week coma.
He was in "constant excruciating pain" from abdominal scar tissue structures called adhesions.
The pain prevented him from getting adequate sleep. And he could not eat without the pain spiking for hours. By the time of his death, he had lost almost half his body weight.Prescription painkillers -- opioids -- relieved much of his pain, or at least kept it to a tolerable level. But after the initial recuperation period, no doctor would prescribe one, despite the fact that this man had a well-documented injury and no record of addiction to any drug, including opioids. Doctors either wouldn't prescribe them on an ongoing basis due to the threat of losing their medical license or being held legally liable for addiction or overdose, or deemed Bruce a hypochondriac.
The federal government and states like California have made it extremely difficult for physicians to prescribe painkillers for an extended period of time. The medical establishment and government bureaucrats have decided that it is better to allow people to suffer terrible pain than to risk them becoming addicted to opioids.
This is barbaric and must change.
But at the highest level, we've got a paranoid ignoramus -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions --running the show.
Denis Slattery writes in the New York Daily News:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks Americans could easily combat the growing opioid crisis if they would take over-the-counter medications for pain and "tough it out."...Sessions blasted marijuana as a gateway drug and lamented the country's more permissive attitude toward pot.
He pointed at weed use as a path toward opioid addiction, although most research shows that heroin use often starts with prescription abuse.
...The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that nearly half of all teens who inject heroin reported abusing prescription opioids first.
While opioid overdoses are killing more than 175 Americans a day, a federally funded study by the RAND Corporation released this week revealed that states with legal medical marijuana have fewer opioid deaths.
Here's a guy who's got countless staffers available to him to prepare policy briefings with neat executive summaries, and he's less informed on the research than some aspiring Reason intern blogging from his bedroom in his mom's house.
This is sure to have consequences -- perhaps excruciatingly painful ones.
Sessions is one of the biggest disappointments of the Trump presidency. He is a classic drug worrier. And useless on any other topic as well.
Ben at March 11, 2018 6:12 AM
I have osteoarthritis in my hands. It isn't even that bad yet but it wakes me at night about a dozen times and hurts like the dickens when I wake up. I can't take NSAIDS so only tylenol. I can tell you that tylenol only takes the edge off. I don't want opioids but I sure could use something. I can't even imagine what that poor guy went through.
cc at March 11, 2018 6:27 AM
So, we shouldn't take opiates away from those who are lawfully using them just because some people abuse them. Sounds like another argument I heard recently that keeps getting scorned. Hmm. Let's see, what was that other argument again?
Conan the Grammarian at March 11, 2018 8:17 AM
"So, we shouldn't take opiates away from those who are lawfully using them just because some people abuse them. Sounds like another argument I heard recently that keeps getting scorned. Hmm. Let's see, what was that other argument again?"
Why, are you talking about guns, central to the argument about arms in the Second Amendment?
So.
Ignore that straw man for a moment, since there is no way to use opioids to defend yourself against the criminal, be he mugger or tyrant.
Acknowledge that part of the public is eager to drug themselves silly rather than simply live a normal life, and that their behavior has resulted in the knee-jerk reaction of bureaucrats eager to be seen "doing something" about the misuse -- which misses the mark.
This issue makes the lie obvious: people with access to drugs do NOT use them responsibly, and the costs, to everyone, are high. The answer is also NOT to make everything over-the-counter, either. More access, more abuse. The sweet smell of the poppy ensures you'll be back even if you didn't really hurt in the first place.
Here's something for you: if you'd adopted the health-care provisions found here, you'd have a secure method of obtaining medication that can be checked for abuse - and all other opioids could be summarily destroyed rather than burden the prison system.
Radwaste at March 11, 2018 10:08 AM
Civil liberties and the arguments used to curtail them, Rad.
Bit of a stretch, I'll admit. But the same government officials arguing to take away someone's right to pain relief are arguing vociferously against taking away someone's right to self-defense.
So, with what justification does freedom end?
Conan the Grammarian at March 11, 2018 11:53 AM
"But at the highest level, we've got a paranoid ignoramus -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions --running the show."
Other paranoid ignorami supporting Sessions:
"Governors Devise Bipartisan Effort to Reduce Opioid Abuse"
New York Times, February 2016
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 11, 2018 2:24 PM
Who is the knucklehead Sessions trying to kid about toughing out pain with OTC stuff? Half of the time, I can't get rid of an ordinary headache with just Tylenol, and aspirin, which is better, is a no-no for me, because it makes my heart rate speed up.
Given that I used to have headaches excruciating enough that I would have to lie down for a few hours, what makes wimpy ol' Jeff Sessions think that OTC's can stop truly serious pain like the aforementioned adhesions, a bad back or knee, etc.?
(I'm still waiting for Sessions, a traditional conservative, to come after my Rock and Roll CDs using asset forfeiture. Devil music and all that.)
mpetrie98 at March 13, 2018 3:42 PM
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