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Absolutely yes. We don't want to go back to a world without drugs for chronic and severe pain. For all the hoopla around the addiction problem, we must never f

Absolutely yes. We don't want to go back to a world without drugs for chronic and severe pain. For all the hoopla around the addiction problem, we must never forget there are real people who need these things. With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. I start worrying in public discussions when people ascribe too much good or evil to inanimate objects. Drugs are tools, like a lot of other things. They can do great good or evil. It's how we use them that makes the difference. Education will get us a lot further in helping folks than prohibition ever will.

macintux 9y ago
> With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. Absolutely. Unfortunately it's often very hard to get good treatment options. A close friend of mine has to travel 45 minutes each way, each day, to get to a clinic where she pays $20 each day. ...and she's fortunate that she was able to get a spot there after spending months buying suboxone from other addicts because she couldn't get a doctor to prescribe it because doctors are constrained on how many prescriptions they can write. When you're poor and have no reliable transportation, that's a brutal way to live. Falling into addiction is easy, and often you never truly escape.
- icantdrive55 9y ago
  1. Suboxone (generic) should be offered free of charge to any addict. The government could stop most opioid addiction overnight. Yes--there will be those that are destined to kill themselfs. My point is we can help most people right now. 2. 99% of the addicts only need 2 mgs./day. They are fooling themselfs if they can't get down to 2 mgs. Bupenorpine has a long half life. 3. Bupenorpine is regulated weirdly. Doctors have to take a class. Which is rediculious. If a doctor can't comprehend the use/abuse of bupenorpine; they should not be practicing. Some, vary rare, doctors will prescribe off label. They are allowed 100 patients--I believe. (FDA makes them take the class. The FDA only allows 100 patients. I don't think the FDA makes the patent come in for a mandatory office visit, for a f---ing pill, but maybe I'm wrong?) That clinic is making $2000 plus insurance/daily for making patients drive to the clinic, and watch the patient take the sublingual tab. 4. At this point we don't need to regulate the drug companies, we need to regulate doctors/treatment centers that feed-greed off their patients! I hate degreed parasites--who prey off their most vulnerable patients. Sorry--the post above me just caught me off guard. I'm just picturing this women driving 45 minutes to take a pill.
sandworm101 9y ago
>>> real people who need these things. That word, need, the the heart of the pain issue. Often they don't need it in the sense that they will not die if they don't get it. Pain itself rarely kills. Conversely, the stats are now pointing to patients living shorter lives on opioid than not. So an argument comes that they really have no medical need. But nobody wants to live in a world with so many people in chronic but treatable pain. That's just mean. I have no medical need for lidocaine but it sure makes having my tooth drilled less horrific. Balances need to be struck. Balance is not an easy word when dealing with addictive substances.

macintux 9y ago

> With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. Absolutely. Unfortunately it's often very hard to get good treatment options. A close friend of mine has to travel 45 minutes each way, each day, to get to a clinic where she pays $20 each day. ...and she's fortunate that she was able to get a spot there after spending months buying suboxone from other addicts because she couldn't get a doctor to prescribe it because doctors are constrained on how many prescriptions they can write. When you're poor and have no reliable transportation, that's a brutal way to live. Falling into addiction is easy, and often you never truly escape.

icantdrive55 9y ago
1. Suboxone (generic) should be offered free of charge to any addict. The government could stop most opioid addiction overnight. Yes--there will be those that are destined to kill themselfs. My point is we can help most people right now. 2. 99% of the addicts only need 2 mgs./day. They are fooling themselfs if they can't get down to 2 mgs. Bupenorpine has a long half life. 3. Bupenorpine is regulated weirdly. Doctors have to take a class. Which is rediculious. If a doctor can't comprehend the use/abuse of bupenorpine; they should not be practicing. Some, vary rare, doctors will prescribe off label. They are allowed 100 patients--I believe. (FDA makes them take the class. The FDA only allows 100 patients. I don't think the FDA makes the patent come in for a mandatory office visit, for a f---ing pill, but maybe I'm wrong?) That clinic is making $2000 plus insurance/daily for making patients drive to the clinic, and watch the patient take the sublingual tab. 4. At this point we don't need to regulate the drug companies, we need to regulate doctors/treatment centers that feed-greed off their patients! I hate degreed parasites--who prey off their most vulnerable patients. Sorry--the post above me just caught me off guard. I'm just picturing this women driving 45 minutes to take a pill.

sandworm101 9y ago

>>> real people who need these things. That word, need, the the heart of the pain issue. Often they don't need it in the sense that they will not die if they don't get it. Pain itself rarely kills. Conversely, the stats are now pointing to patients living shorter lives on opioid than not. So an argument comes that they really have no medical need. But nobody wants to live in a world with so many people in chronic but treatable pain. That's just mean. I have no medical need for lidocaine but it sure makes having my tooth drilled less horrific. Balances need to be struck. Balance is not an easy word when dealing with addictive substances.