Know anyone in chronic, intractable pain? If you do, or if you're a chronic pain patient yourself, you're probably aware of the draconian new regulations, suggestions, measures, policies or whatever they're being called on any given day concerning pain medication, no doubt justified by and geared toward SAVING THE CHILDREN!! {you may gasp and clutch your pearls here}
All drama aside, another arm of the War on Drugs has sprung up, this time aimed at the prescribing and use of opioids for the management of long term chronic pain. While ostensibly meant to curb the misuse, addiction and overdose of prescription drugs, said to be an epidemic of the greatest proportions, these new policies are already wreaking havoc on a sector of the population that includes war veterans, police and firefighters wounded in the line of duty, not to mention citizens from every square inch of our nation with painful spinal cord injuries, migraine headaches, rheumatoid arthritis and similar autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, and a host of other ailments that make normal life a pipe dream to those who suffer from them. Thanks to pain medication, many people suffering from these painful conditions have been able to function in a semi-normal way; they've been able to continue working, play with their children, perform household chores, do some grocery shopping, and socialize with friends. How dare they!
Every day I see another article penned by a doctor, pharmacist, or "concerned citizen" who, after losing a loved one to an overdose, has decided to devote the rest of their life to a crusade to rid the planet of the scourge of pain medicine. Never mind that it's a life saving medicine, that it gives a quality of life to many for whom there are no other options; no, declaring war on something that has hurt us is just the American way. Will there be innocent victims harmed in this war? Of course, but as with any war, casualties are to be expected.
Quite possibly we are having a collective knee jerk reaction, so I suggest we take a deep breath, put aside our emotions and utilize some logic here. Ok, just kidding (what was I thinking?). It's already a done deal; these polices are in place. Get ready for reports of suicides and increased street drug overdoses, job loss, and death due to plain 'ol inactivity, because the number one killer of Americans is heart disease, and possibly the biggest contributor to that, aside from our atrocious eating habits, is a sedentary lifestyle. Like what happens when you're in too much pain to move. That's just how it goes when you set loose baskets full of snakes to eat up the rat population. (Does this reference make sense to anyone but me? "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly...")
But, just in case anyone was wondering about the facts behind this hysteria:
In 2010, the CDC reported 16,651 deaths attributable to Pharmaceutical Opioid Analgesics. In 2013, 16,235.
Bloomberg Business Reports tells us: "While motor-vehicle deaths dropped 22 percent from 2005 to 2010, gun fatalities are rising again after a low point in 2000, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shooting deaths in 2015 will probably rise to almost 33,000, and those related to autos will decline to about 32,000, based on the 10-year average trend." http://www.bloomberg.com/...
There were 29,001 alcohol-induced deaths in 2013, not counting the 18,146 people who succumbed to alcoholic liver disease, also according to official CDC numbers. That's 47,147 deaths directly related to alcohol, not even factoring in DUI related deaths and other deaths indirectly caused by alcohol.
The 2014 Surgeon General's report estimates that cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. See more at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/... See also Smoking and Mortality — Beyond Established Causes, Source: Brian D. Carter, M.P.H., Christian C. Abnet, Ph.D., et al., "Smoking and Mortality — Beyond Established Causes," New England Journal of Medicine, Feb 12, 2015;372:631-40. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1407211. http://www.nejm.org/...
41,149 souls died of successful suicide attempts in 2013 - I say successful because I have to wonder how many attempts were averted. I also think, with the new trend toward stigmatizing, misunderstanding and, ultimately, under treating people living with horribly unbearable pain, those numbers bear close observation in the future.
My point, if it's not painfully (pun intended) obvious, is that, without exception, these numbers are all BIGGER than the numbers of people who have died of prescription drug overdose! Which leads me to wonder, what is the real crisis? After decades of a deplorably failed War On Drugs, I dare say the cringe-worthy, most embarrassing problem - embarrassing at least to policy makers - is an ocean full of money being thrown toward preventing a problem, no matter who gets hurt, no matter how obvious it is that this trail has gone cold. Continuing and then doubling down on this disastrous policy rather than trying a new approach is just nonsensical. After decades of nebulous results, why not try doing something that would truly save lives AND money, like maybe improving and expanding treatment for addiction, which is practically nonexistent for most.
To put a big exclamation point on the absolute absurdity of this failure called The War on Drugs, guess how many deaths were reported by the CDC from overdose of marijuana - the Ground Zero for the War on Drugs? Zero. That's Zed, if you're Canadian. Zippo, zilch.
That's right, folks, for decades we have been waging a very costly war primarily on a drug that has killed no one. Go figure.