- Joined
- Aug 26, 2017
- Messages
- 287
Dear Senator Murray, I am writing you this letter because I am a chronic pain sufferer and believe that we don’t get much in the way of representation in the media and from the government. All we ever hear is about the bad regarding opiates and all of the deaths, but nobody ever talks about how many lives are saved. There are many people that suffer from chronic pain that would probably either turn to heroin or commit suicide without pain relief from their pain. Chronic pain is enough to make you go mad; there are days when I feel like I’m losing my mind because of the pain, this pain is typically something that you can’t just tune out.
The problem I am seeing is there is nobody advocating for the people who are suffering, all that is ever mentioned is the negative and I and millions of other voters are very worried that opiates are going to get outlawed. People talk everyday about the over prescribing of opiates by DR’s and quite frankly that might have been the case 5 or 10 years ago but it is not anymore. I have been dealing with my chronic pain since 2013 and I am currently rated 90% disabled by the VA. By the way anybody that blames the VA for over prescribing pain medications is just out of their mind, the Seattle VA Hospital will pretty much not prescribe opiates under any circumstances. I have been to the ER at the VA with crippling pain and wasn’t given anything for my pain.
I have been trying for three years to find a Dr that would prescribe opiates on a regular basis even if only for a few months so that I can ignore the pain enough to exercise and try and lose some weight which undoubtedly contributes to my pain, however DR’s like this just don’t exist anymore. I have even tried paying cash to go to DR’s or pain clinics because my insurance didn’t cover it and found most of them don’t take cash patients. I finally was referred to a new pain clinic and will be going next week to receive a small dose of pain meds for a short period of time, however they did make me wait 2 weeks because they don’t prescribe on the first appointment. I will say I think urine tests are a good thing and before I even saw the DR they made me take one.
I do find objection with reporting today based on last Sundays 60 minutes television show that over 200,000 people have died from opiates over the last 20 years. First off that is over 20 years, what is happening now? I think that is more relevant.
The media used to report heroin as heroin and prescription opiates as prescription medications, now they just report it all as opiates and that is misleading. An example is that according to https://www.12keysrehab.com/blog/most-common-drugs-people-overdose-on
27,000 people die each year. But this is combining heroin and prescription opiates, this is very misleading. From 2001 to 2014 there was a 42% increase in deaths from cocaine, the article didn’t specify the starting number in 2001 but I have to believe this number is significant. Here are some other statistics that are very relevant:
According to the CDC the total deaths per year for opiates is around 35,000 however if you separate heroin from prescription pain meds the number is only 18,000
Deaths from Benzodiazepines is 9000
Deaths from cocaine is 7000
Deaths from methamphetamine 15,000
Anti-depressants kill more people than prescription opioids at 40,000 per year
Nsaids and aspirin cause roughly 16,500 deaths per year
Don’t even get me started on number of deaths caused by alcohol and alcohol related driving deaths.
These numbers were easily found through a simple google search so it isn’t like much research is needed to find these numbers. The one thing that legislators don’t take in to consideration is that by making prescriptions harder to get people who really need them will turn to other sources such as obtaining opiates illegally or even turning to heroin.
It has been stated that opiates lead to suicide, however I believe it’s the lack of opiates that lead to suicide. I hear stories everyday of people that are just immediately cut off from opiates and suffer from withdrawals. I think that this is one cause of opiate related suicide and the other is people with chronic pain that just can’t get any relief.
I heard a horror story the other day and I don’t know if it is legislation or the DEA that has caused this issue. I heard of a story about how the DEA was auditing a DR’s records which they apparently do regularly now, the person telling this story was a patient and was called by the DEA and had to come in and count out their opiates for the DEA officers. One of the reasons it is so hard for patients who suffer from chronic pain to get prescription pain medication is because of the cost to DR’s. They have to have attorneys and staff on hand to handle audits by the DEA and the paperwork associated with this is cost and time prohibitive. Legislature needs to come up with a way to make access regulated yet affordable. The only idea that I can come up with is to have some sort of qualification process from an entity like the DEA. Basically if is proven that you have a need for prescription pain medications you get registered and get a card like an insurance card so that a DR can prescribe to the patient without fear of recourse.
A simple google search will show many articles about the suffering of chronic pain patients at the hands of the DEA
https://www.google.com/search?q=can+the+DEA+contact+a+patient+about+opiates&oq=can+the+DEA+contact+a+patient+about+opiates&gs_l=psy-ab.3...70753.79927.0.80475.47.39.1.0.0.0.391.5869.0j18j10j2.30.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..16.21.4313...0j0i67k1j0i22i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.0.E1UJi4H2dfk
and if you google Does the DEA audit DR’s you will find a wealth of information of what DR’s are facing because of regulations geared toward making all DR’s look like criminals.
Signed: Concerned chronic pain sufferer.
The problem I am seeing is there is nobody advocating for the people who are suffering, all that is ever mentioned is the negative and I and millions of other voters are very worried that opiates are going to get outlawed. People talk everyday about the over prescribing of opiates by DR’s and quite frankly that might have been the case 5 or 10 years ago but it is not anymore. I have been dealing with my chronic pain since 2013 and I am currently rated 90% disabled by the VA. By the way anybody that blames the VA for over prescribing pain medications is just out of their mind, the Seattle VA Hospital will pretty much not prescribe opiates under any circumstances. I have been to the ER at the VA with crippling pain and wasn’t given anything for my pain.
I have been trying for three years to find a Dr that would prescribe opiates on a regular basis even if only for a few months so that I can ignore the pain enough to exercise and try and lose some weight which undoubtedly contributes to my pain, however DR’s like this just don’t exist anymore. I have even tried paying cash to go to DR’s or pain clinics because my insurance didn’t cover it and found most of them don’t take cash patients. I finally was referred to a new pain clinic and will be going next week to receive a small dose of pain meds for a short period of time, however they did make me wait 2 weeks because they don’t prescribe on the first appointment. I will say I think urine tests are a good thing and before I even saw the DR they made me take one.
I do find objection with reporting today based on last Sundays 60 minutes television show that over 200,000 people have died from opiates over the last 20 years. First off that is over 20 years, what is happening now? I think that is more relevant.
The media used to report heroin as heroin and prescription opiates as prescription medications, now they just report it all as opiates and that is misleading. An example is that according to https://www.12keysrehab.com/blog/most-common-drugs-people-overdose-on
27,000 people die each year. But this is combining heroin and prescription opiates, this is very misleading. From 2001 to 2014 there was a 42% increase in deaths from cocaine, the article didn’t specify the starting number in 2001 but I have to believe this number is significant. Here are some other statistics that are very relevant:
According to the CDC the total deaths per year for opiates is around 35,000 however if you separate heroin from prescription pain meds the number is only 18,000
Deaths from Benzodiazepines is 9000
Deaths from cocaine is 7000
Deaths from methamphetamine 15,000
Anti-depressants kill more people than prescription opioids at 40,000 per year
Nsaids and aspirin cause roughly 16,500 deaths per year
Don’t even get me started on number of deaths caused by alcohol and alcohol related driving deaths.
These numbers were easily found through a simple google search so it isn’t like much research is needed to find these numbers. The one thing that legislators don’t take in to consideration is that by making prescriptions harder to get people who really need them will turn to other sources such as obtaining opiates illegally or even turning to heroin.
It has been stated that opiates lead to suicide, however I believe it’s the lack of opiates that lead to suicide. I hear stories everyday of people that are just immediately cut off from opiates and suffer from withdrawals. I think that this is one cause of opiate related suicide and the other is people with chronic pain that just can’t get any relief.
I heard a horror story the other day and I don’t know if it is legislation or the DEA that has caused this issue. I heard of a story about how the DEA was auditing a DR’s records which they apparently do regularly now, the person telling this story was a patient and was called by the DEA and had to come in and count out their opiates for the DEA officers. One of the reasons it is so hard for patients who suffer from chronic pain to get prescription pain medication is because of the cost to DR’s. They have to have attorneys and staff on hand to handle audits by the DEA and the paperwork associated with this is cost and time prohibitive. Legislature needs to come up with a way to make access regulated yet affordable. The only idea that I can come up with is to have some sort of qualification process from an entity like the DEA. Basically if is proven that you have a need for prescription pain medications you get registered and get a card like an insurance card so that a DR can prescribe to the patient without fear of recourse.
A simple google search will show many articles about the suffering of chronic pain patients at the hands of the DEA
https://www.google.com/search?q=can+the+DEA+contact+a+patient+about+opiates&oq=can+the+DEA+contact+a+patient+about+opiates&gs_l=psy-ab.3...70753.79927.0.80475.47.39.1.0.0.0.391.5869.0j18j10j2.30.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..16.21.4313...0j0i67k1j0i22i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.0.E1UJi4H2dfk
and if you google Does the DEA audit DR’s you will find a wealth of information of what DR’s are facing because of regulations geared toward making all DR’s look like criminals.
Signed: Concerned chronic pain sufferer.
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