8 ms·

The Pain Refugees: The forgotten victims of America’s opioid crisis

44 points by samclemens 8y ago

tomohawk 8y ago
The supreme folly of allowing politicians to be involved in the doctor - patient relationship. If they control medicine, they control your health, they control you.
- Qworg 8y ago
  The same doctor - patient relationship that was hijacked by corporations pushing drugs and kickbacks for doctors? Who is in control then?
star-castle 8y ago
Huge, shockingly large numbers of (certain) people are killing themselves with opiates. But fuck them, right? Check out this extremely rare case of (certain, other) people who occasionally face the unending horror of doubtful doctors.
- burkaman 8y ago
  I think it's a good idea to initially assume most things you read were written in good faith, just to see if it's possible. At the very least it will make your life more pleasant. In this case, is it possible the author doesn't want you to forget about the shocking numbers of people killing themselves with opiates? Perhaps they wanted to illustrate one reason the opioid epidemic is such a difficult problem, and why doctors keep prescribing opioids in such high numbers. Maybe they wanted to demonstrate that opioids are capable of doing some good, and shouldn't be completely banned or too aggressively limited for everyone. I can't read their mind, but I think it's a useful life skill to assume everyone you meet is a generally good person until they prove you wrong.
  - star-castle 8y ago
    > I think it's a good idea to initially assume most things you read were written in good faith When a journalist writes, I only look for the narrative.
- jnbiche 8y ago
  You think horrifyingly painful medical conditions are extremely rare, or you doubt they exist? Or both? If so (as you suggest above), what a sheltered existence you have led! Consider yourself fortunate that neither you nor your family has suffered from a painful chronic neurological condition, or cancer, or other such disease. I've had a family member die from opiate overdose, but I've also have two family members die of cancer and who were brutally undertreated for pain because of the current regulatory insanity doctors deal with now.
  - simplyfantast 8y ago
    I'm curious about your experiences. I'm an inpatient physician. Once you are dying of cancer, we almost dump opioids on you where I practice. Especially if you elect hospice or comfort care. If you don't, then it becomes somewhat more difficult because escalating opioid therapy is just assuming risk of causing hypotension or respiratory depression. We definitely undertreat acute pain. But in my circle, I'm pretty frank with patients that we generally won't use opioids for chronic pain outside of cancer-pain. It's not because of regulatory issues, it's more because the vast majority of people with chronic pain that I see don't have an obvious organic cause. Yes, it means the few that do have a good indication for chronic opioid therapy will suffer. Also, acute and chronic pain behave differently. People with acute pain have a certain appearance that is easily recognizable. People with chronic pain will be sitting there looking comfortable, normal HR, eating and walking and watching movies comfortably on their iPads. It feels so weird prescribing opioids to those people. All the while telling you they "10/10" pain. We need better studies on who qualifies for chronic opioid therapy and how it should be managed. Drug-monitoring databases have certainly helped, but a lot more needs to be done.
    - jnbiche 8y ago
      > I'm curious about your experiences. Well, let me tell you first my personal experiences with a non-terminal but severe and potentially life-threatening illness before I move on to my two relatives who died of cancer. I've had two excruciating episodes of acute pancreatitis that sent me to the ER this past 18 months. One was quite severe and left me in the hospital for a week. Pain control wasn't a problem in the hospital, but once I was discharged it become a huge problem. I got multiple other episodes of similar severe abdominal/back pain the past year but my amylase/lipase weren't elevated sky-high as they were during the two hospital stays. The whole situation lasted so long I'd assume I would be considered a chronic pain patient, and yet I can quite assure you I wasn't looking comfortable, I had elevated HR and BP, I was nauseated from either the pancreatitis or the pain (sometimes it was hard to tell). And yet the gastro I was seeing was loathe to prescribe me adequate pain relief, nor would he make a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis all while farting around with tests like colonoscopy and gastric transit time testing. I got a months worth of pain killers from him after I was in the hospital for a week, then I was on my own though the pain was sometimes just as bad. Finally, I fired him after getting nowhere for a year, went to a pancreas center of excellence a few hours away where they quickly ordered an EUS and found it was a bad gallbladder that was causing it (the old gastro had ordered a CAT scan and ultrasound but neither showed the sludge that my GB was packed with, although it should have shown some other issues with the gallbladder according to the pancreas expert). Had gallbladder removed a month ago and am feeling much better now, finally able to eat normally for first time in 18 months and out of severe pain. Unfortunately, because of the pain and sickness, I've been unable to work for most of the last 18 months. Along with my considerable hospital bills (dozens of procedures, a surgery, two hospital stays), this has left my family in a precarious financial position. Luckily, so I'm now looking to return to work. My story is not even what I was thinking about above, since I'm not 100% sure if I'd be considered a chronic or acute pain patient, but your attitude struck a nerve with me so I thought I'd share. Frankly, it pisses me off to hear you describe your patients thus, because my guess is that some of them are like me over the past 18 months. By the way, although I certainly wasn't comfortable when I was in moderate-to-severe pain from the pancreatitis over the past 18 months, I would watch movies in a sometimes vain attempt to distract myself from the pain. I mention this just to clue you in as to what might be happening with your patients. And yes, some of your patients are malingering, I'm sure. But the fact that you make blanket generalizations about all your chronic pain patients tells me all I need to know about how many true cases of severe pain you're discounting. On to my two relatives who passed away from cancer. One (my uncle, 45 of age, with lymphoma) wanted to die at home and so took home hospice care. Vastly under-treated for pain, with my aunts and uncles constantly reminding the doctors that he was terminal and pleading for more/better pain meds for him. The man was dying and his main goal, as explicitly explained to the doctors, was to die at home and do so as comfortably as possible, so I don't understand why concern over addiction, respiratory depression, or hypotension should have played a major role. My other relative (grandfather) who passed away from cancer was a paragon of his community, retired fire chief, in-patient hospice care, 80 years old, and still struggled to get adequate pain relief for his terminal cancer pain. Luckily, after 3-4 weeks of unnecessary suffering, he had enough connections to influential people in the community that the situation was rectified, but what happens to other people without connections? Well, if they were at that hospice, then they probably suffered. Honestly, this whole situation pisses me off so badly this will be my last comment on the matter. Think what you want, but tons of people, both acute and chronic pain patients, out there are suffering, and yet what's currently causing most opiate deaths are illegal drugs, not prescription pain killers. And many of the prescription pain killers are diverted from overseas, and not diverted from bona fide pain patients. > But in my circle, I'm pretty frank with patients that we generally won't use opioids for chronic pain outside of cancer-pain [...] Yes, it means the few that do have a good indication for chronic opioid therapy will suffer. Glad you recognize this. In addition to my verifiably organic condition, I have a friend with phantom limb pain (actually missing a arm, pretty fucking organic!) who is not helped much by the usual neuropathic pain drugs while opioids helped him tremendously. But he can't get them anymore, like yourself, all his doctors refuse, and so he suffers and is on disability when before he worked. Another casualty from our war on drugs, I suppose. If you're like most doctors, I'm guessing that this won't make a damn bit of difference to your perspective, so I'm not sure why I spent the time writing it up. But I did, so I'll hit submit.
- sctb 8y ago
  Could you please post comments with more information and less provocation? We're here to learn, and only one of those helps. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- klibertp 8y ago
  > But fuck them, right? Is it really impossible to help one group without physically torturing the other?
refurb 8y ago
It's fascinating living long enough to see things come full circle. Back in the 1980s, people were severely under-treated for pain. Things changed and being on opioids long-term was OK in certain circumstances. Now we've come full circle and people in pain are being denied effective treatments, all in the name of moral panic. Rinse...and repeat.
- notadoc 8y ago
  > Now we've come full circle and people in pain are being denied effective treatments, all in the name of moral panic. A moral panic is exactly what this is. Meanwhile, nearly a million people die in the USA every single year from obesity, dietary choices, and lifestyle decisions leading to heart disease, diabetes, etc, which is a very real and preventable crisis. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
- 2bitencryption 8y ago
  > all in the name of moral panic I think "moral panic" implies "nothing is wrong, but are all panicking anyway." Something is clearly wrong. And those pills are coming from somewhere. It seems like the true panic is over finding the right balance, if that's even possible.
  - jnbiche 8y ago
    > And those pills are coming from somewhere. Not sure, but if you're suggesting these are from legal prescription pain pills, please read the article and look at CDC data. You'll note that most opiate deaths aren't from pills, but from illegal heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanyl. Pain pill prescriptions are down 40% the past 5 years, even as opiate deaths are up 40%.
    - DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago
      It’s almost like... people got hooked on pain pills pushed by Perdue and doctors, then their access was removed so they switched to “illegal heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanyl,” and started dropping dead. 40% drop on one hand and 40% rise on the other... ah reckon thar maht be a connection!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
SolaceQuantum 8y ago
> He explained that Isaiah, his five-year-old, had been especially affected by his mom’s leaving, and a few mornings earlier, still half-asleep, had grown distraught. “Do you have any idea,” he asked, “what it’s like when your son needs you to comfort him, he needs you to pick him up, and all you can tell him is, ‘I’m so sorry, I just can’t right now’?” An absolutely chilling ending to a great read. It brings to light serious problems in how society is handling cracking down on opioid addiction, but also there aren’t many solutions available.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  > but also there aren’t many solutions available. Properly funding mental health and rehabilitation services would be a start.
skookumchuck 8y ago
I'm surprised the pharma companies are still even producing opioids. They've been so demonized for it, why should they?
- favorited 8y ago
  Because there is truly no other viable solution for pain management in certain situations.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - evincarofautumn 8y ago
    Obviously, in certain circumstances only traditional opioids will do, but for alternative pain management, people speak highly of cannabis and kratom. For those who haven’t yet heard of it, kratom (variously pronounced “KRAY-tum”, “KRAT-um”, and “kra-TOME”) is a southeast Asian tree in the coffee family, whose leaves are chewed or ground into powder and swallowed in capsules or brewed into tea; it acts as an atypical opioid agonist, which appears to be less addictive and significantly less dangerous than traditional opioids, while offering comparable pain relief. The DEA and FDA have been making moves toward banning it for a few years now, lacking both sufficient evidence that it’s dangerous, and sufficient research to confirm the considerable anecdotal evidence that it’s safe and useful as a mild natural remedy for pain, anxiety and depression, and addiction—particularly opioid withdrawal. So I hope cannabis legalisation continues to proceed and that kratom achieves secure legal status so that it can be used directly, as well as studied and used to produce derivatives, for safer and less addictive pain management. Thousands of people claim that it has saved their lives from opioid addiction and pain. Personally, I’ve found it useful for my minor chronic pain, but it truly gave me my life back from alcoholism by greatly reducing my desire to drink. I fear that if it’s banned, it will result in needless deaths and further worsen the opioid crisis.
- civilitty 8y ago
  They're not the ones who are liable for the consequences of the opioid epidemic. Once the FDA approves a drug, unless someone can prove that the researchers knowingly misled investigators, it is nearly impossible to sue the pharma companies. The doctors who prescribe the medication (using guidelines provided by the pharma company) become their human liability shields. They couldn't care less about bad PR because their patents are a massive barrier to entry and they're pretty much the only ones hiring highly educated biologists outside of academia and medicine.
JeffreyKaine 8y ago
Marijuana is a great alternative to opioids for pain management. I got a couple long term injuries in college (permanently broken L5 vertebrae, a shoulder that continually dislocates) and was on opioids for quite a while. I was noticing a dependence and quickly looked for alternatives. Weed has been a godsend. I can sleep through the night, and mostly operate pain free these days. I've been smoking weed for 7+ years and I'm feeling great! Disclaimer: I work for Eaze.
- culot 8y ago
  I have never found that to be true. I've been a lot of pain meds in the past, and marijuana as well, and the marijuana never did squat for the pain. Transitioning from opioids to marijuana, really? That sounds hella dubious to me.
  - JeffreyKaine 8y ago
    There are a bunch of accounts of marijuana working for pain. Try something high in CBD, ideally an indica.
  - drewmol 8y ago
    I think this is quite dependant on the person, type of pain, cannabis strain, extraction or concentration method, ingestion method etc. As mentioned up thread, kratom provides much closer effect to the commonly prescribed opiate derivative medications than cannabis. Note about kratom legality: Indonesia and some other SE Asian countries where it's outright banned seem largely influenced by the fact that opium addiction and sale is highly profitable for the governing bodies, and mild natural alternatives are bad for business.
- aldoushuxley001 8y ago
  But do you now notice a dependence on weed?
  - JeffreyKaine 8y ago
    I depend on it for the pain, but it isn't addicting. No cravings or anything like that.
pdfernhout 8y ago
Basic income the solution to the opioid crisis? A lot of financially poor people working three part-time jobs would suddenly become a lot less stressed and have more time to take care of themselves and their families.

44 points by samclemens 8y ago

The supreme folly of allowing politicians to be involved in the doctor - patient relationship. If they control medicine, they control your health, they control you.

Qworg 8y ago
The same doctor - patient relationship that was hijacked by corporations pushing drugs and kickbacks for doctors? Who is in control then?

star-castle 8y ago

Huge, shockingly large numbers of (certain) people are killing themselves with opiates. But fuck them, right? Check out this extremely rare case of (certain, other) people who occasionally face the unending horror of doubtful doctors.

burkaman 8y ago
I think it's a good idea to initially assume most things you read were written in good faith, just to see if it's possible. At the very least it will make your life more pleasant. In this case, is it possible the author doesn't want you to forget about the shocking numbers of people killing themselves with opiates? Perhaps they wanted to illustrate one reason the opioid epidemic is such a difficult problem, and why doctors keep prescribing opioids in such high numbers. Maybe they wanted to demonstrate that opioids are capable of doing some good, and shouldn't be completely banned or too aggressively limited for everyone. I can't read their mind, but I think it's a useful life skill to assume everyone you meet is a generally good person until they prove you wrong.
- star-castle 8y ago
  > I think it's a good idea to initially assume most things you read were written in good faith When a journalist writes, I only look for the narrative.
jnbiche 8y ago
You think horrifyingly painful medical conditions are extremely rare, or you doubt they exist? Or both? If so (as you suggest above), what a sheltered existence you have led! Consider yourself fortunate that neither you nor your family has suffered from a painful chronic neurological condition, or cancer, or other such disease. I've had a family member die from opiate overdose, but I've also have two family members die of cancer and who were brutally undertreated for pain because of the current regulatory insanity doctors deal with now.
- simplyfantast 8y ago
  I'm curious about your experiences. I'm an inpatient physician. Once you are dying of cancer, we almost dump opioids on you where I practice. Especially if you elect hospice or comfort care. If you don't, then it becomes somewhat more difficult because escalating opioid therapy is just assuming risk of causing hypotension or respiratory depression. We definitely undertreat acute pain. But in my circle, I'm pretty frank with patients that we generally won't use opioids for chronic pain outside of cancer-pain. It's not because of regulatory issues, it's more because the vast majority of people with chronic pain that I see don't have an obvious organic cause. Yes, it means the few that do have a good indication for chronic opioid therapy will suffer. Also, acute and chronic pain behave differently. People with acute pain have a certain appearance that is easily recognizable. People with chronic pain will be sitting there looking comfortable, normal HR, eating and walking and watching movies comfortably on their iPads. It feels so weird prescribing opioids to those people. All the while telling you they "10/10" pain. We need better studies on who qualifies for chronic opioid therapy and how it should be managed. Drug-monitoring databases have certainly helped, but a lot more needs to be done.
  - jnbiche 8y ago
    > I'm curious about your experiences. Well, let me tell you first my personal experiences with a non-terminal but severe and potentially life-threatening illness before I move on to my two relatives who died of cancer. I've had two excruciating episodes of acute pancreatitis that sent me to the ER this past 18 months. One was quite severe and left me in the hospital for a week. Pain control wasn't a problem in the hospital, but once I was discharged it become a huge problem. I got multiple other episodes of similar severe abdominal/back pain the past year but my amylase/lipase weren't elevated sky-high as they were during the two hospital stays. The whole situation lasted so long I'd assume I would be considered a chronic pain patient, and yet I can quite assure you I wasn't looking comfortable, I had elevated HR and BP, I was nauseated from either the pancreatitis or the pain (sometimes it was hard to tell). And yet the gastro I was seeing was loathe to prescribe me adequate pain relief, nor would he make a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis all while farting around with tests like colonoscopy and gastric transit time testing. I got a months worth of pain killers from him after I was in the hospital for a week, then I was on my own though the pain was sometimes just as bad. Finally, I fired him after getting nowhere for a year, went to a pancreas center of excellence a few hours away where they quickly ordered an EUS and found it was a bad gallbladder that was causing it (the old gastro had ordered a CAT scan and ultrasound but neither showed the sludge that my GB was packed with, although it should have shown some other issues with the gallbladder according to the pancreas expert). Had gallbladder removed a month ago and am feeling much better now, finally able to eat normally for first time in 18 months and out of severe pain. Unfortunately, because of the pain and sickness, I've been unable to work for most of the last 18 months. Along with my considerable hospital bills (dozens of procedures, a surgery, two hospital stays), this has left my family in a precarious financial position. Luckily, so I'm now looking to return to work. My story is not even what I was thinking about above, since I'm not 100% sure if I'd be considered a chronic or acute pain patient, but your attitude struck a nerve with me so I thought I'd share. Frankly, it pisses me off to hear you describe your patients thus, because my guess is that some of them are like me over the past 18 months. By the way, although I certainly wasn't comfortable when I was in moderate-to-severe pain from the pancreatitis over the past 18 months, I would watch movies in a sometimes vain attempt to distract myself from the pain. I mention this just to clue you in as to what might be happening with your patients. And yes, some of your patients are malingering, I'm sure. But the fact that you make blanket generalizations about all your chronic pain patients tells me all I need to know about how many true cases of severe pain you're discounting. On to my two relatives who passed away from cancer. One (my uncle, 45 of age, with lymphoma) wanted to die at home and so took home hospice care. Vastly under-treated for pain, with my aunts and uncles constantly reminding the doctors that he was terminal and pleading for more/better pain meds for him. The man was dying and his main goal, as explicitly explained to the doctors, was to die at home and do so as comfortably as possible, so I don't understand why concern over addiction, respiratory depression, or hypotension should have played a major role. My other relative (grandfather) who passed away from cancer was a paragon of his community, retired fire chief, in-patient hospice care, 80 years old, and still struggled to get adequate pain relief for his terminal cancer pain. Luckily, after 3-4 weeks of unnecessary suffering, he had enough connections to influential people in the community that the situation was rectified, but what happens to other people without connections? Well, if they were at that hospice, then they probably suffered. Honestly, this whole situation pisses me off so badly this will be my last comment on the matter. Think what you want, but tons of people, both acute and chronic pain patients, out there are suffering, and yet what's currently causing most opiate deaths are illegal drugs, not prescription pain killers. And many of the prescription pain killers are diverted from overseas, and not diverted from bona fide pain patients. > But in my circle, I'm pretty frank with patients that we generally won't use opioids for chronic pain outside of cancer-pain [...] Yes, it means the few that do have a good indication for chronic opioid therapy will suffer. Glad you recognize this. In addition to my verifiably organic condition, I have a friend with phantom limb pain (actually missing a arm, pretty fucking organic!) who is not helped much by the usual neuropathic pain drugs while opioids helped him tremendously. But he can't get them anymore, like yourself, all his doctors refuse, and so he suffers and is on disability when before he worked. Another casualty from our war on drugs, I suppose. If you're like most doctors, I'm guessing that this won't make a damn bit of difference to your perspective, so I'm not sure why I spent the time writing it up. But I did, so I'll hit submit.
sctb 8y ago
Could you please post comments with more information and less provocation? We're here to learn, and only one of those helps. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
klibertp 8y ago
> But fuck them, right? Is it really impossible to help one group without physically torturing the other?

refurb 8y ago

It's fascinating living long enough to see things come full circle. Back in the 1980s, people were severely under-treated for pain. Things changed and being on opioids long-term was OK in certain circumstances. Now we've come full circle and people in pain are being denied effective treatments, all in the name of moral panic. Rinse...and repeat.

notadoc 8y ago
> Now we've come full circle and people in pain are being denied effective treatments, all in the name of moral panic. A moral panic is exactly what this is. Meanwhile, nearly a million people die in the USA every single year from obesity, dietary choices, and lifestyle decisions leading to heart disease, diabetes, etc, which is a very real and preventable crisis. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
2bitencryption 8y ago
> all in the name of moral panic I think "moral panic" implies "nothing is wrong, but are all panicking anyway." Something is clearly wrong. And those pills are coming from somewhere. It seems like the true panic is over finding the right balance, if that's even possible.
- jnbiche 8y ago
  > And those pills are coming from somewhere. Not sure, but if you're suggesting these are from legal prescription pain pills, please read the article and look at CDC data. You'll note that most opiate deaths aren't from pills, but from illegal heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanyl. Pain pill prescriptions are down 40% the past 5 years, even as opiate deaths are up 40%.
  - DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago
    It’s almost like... people got hooked on pain pills pushed by Perdue and doctors, then their access was removed so they switched to “illegal heroin, fentanyl, and carfentanyl,” and started dropping dead. 40% drop on one hand and 40% rise on the other... ah reckon thar maht be a connection!

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

SolaceQuantum 8y ago

> He explained that Isaiah, his five-year-old, had been especially affected by his mom’s leaving, and a few mornings earlier, still half-asleep, had grown distraught. “Do you have any idea,” he asked, “what it’s like when your son needs you to comfort him, he needs you to pick him up, and all you can tell him is, ‘I’m so sorry, I just can’t right now’?” An absolutely chilling ending to a great read. It brings to light serious problems in how society is handling cracking down on opioid addiction, but also there aren’t many solutions available.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
> but also there aren’t many solutions available. Properly funding mental health and rehabilitation services would be a start.

skookumchuck 8y ago

I'm surprised the pharma companies are still even producing opioids. They've been so demonized for it, why should they?

favorited 8y ago
Because there is truly no other viable solution for pain management in certain situations.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- evincarofautumn 8y ago
  Obviously, in certain circumstances only traditional opioids will do, but for alternative pain management, people speak highly of cannabis and kratom. For those who haven’t yet heard of it, kratom (variously pronounced “KRAY-tum”, “KRAT-um”, and “kra-TOME”) is a southeast Asian tree in the coffee family, whose leaves are chewed or ground into powder and swallowed in capsules or brewed into tea; it acts as an atypical opioid agonist, which appears to be less addictive and significantly less dangerous than traditional opioids, while offering comparable pain relief. The DEA and FDA have been making moves toward banning it for a few years now, lacking both sufficient evidence that it’s dangerous, and sufficient research to confirm the considerable anecdotal evidence that it’s safe and useful as a mild natural remedy for pain, anxiety and depression, and addiction—particularly opioid withdrawal. So I hope cannabis legalisation continues to proceed and that kratom achieves secure legal status so that it can be used directly, as well as studied and used to produce derivatives, for safer and less addictive pain management. Thousands of people claim that it has saved their lives from opioid addiction and pain. Personally, I’ve found it useful for my minor chronic pain, but it truly gave me my life back from alcoholism by greatly reducing my desire to drink. I fear that if it’s banned, it will result in needless deaths and further worsen the opioid crisis.
civilitty 8y ago
They're not the ones who are liable for the consequences of the opioid epidemic. Once the FDA approves a drug, unless someone can prove that the researchers knowingly misled investigators, it is nearly impossible to sue the pharma companies. The doctors who prescribe the medication (using guidelines provided by the pharma company) become their human liability shields. They couldn't care less about bad PR because their patents are a massive barrier to entry and they're pretty much the only ones hiring highly educated biologists outside of academia and medicine.

JeffreyKaine 8y ago

Marijuana is a great alternative to opioids for pain management. I got a couple long term injuries in college (permanently broken L5 vertebrae, a shoulder that continually dislocates) and was on opioids for quite a while. I was noticing a dependence and quickly looked for alternatives. Weed has been a godsend. I can sleep through the night, and mostly operate pain free these days. I've been smoking weed for 7+ years and I'm feeling great! Disclaimer: I work for Eaze.

culot 8y ago
I have never found that to be true. I've been a lot of pain meds in the past, and marijuana as well, and the marijuana never did squat for the pain. Transitioning from opioids to marijuana, really? That sounds hella dubious to me.
- JeffreyKaine 8y ago
  There are a bunch of accounts of marijuana working for pain. Try something high in CBD, ideally an indica.
- drewmol 8y ago
  I think this is quite dependant on the person, type of pain, cannabis strain, extraction or concentration method, ingestion method etc. As mentioned up thread, kratom provides much closer effect to the commonly prescribed opiate derivative medications than cannabis. Note about kratom legality: Indonesia and some other SE Asian countries where it's outright banned seem largely influenced by the fact that opium addiction and sale is highly profitable for the governing bodies, and mild natural alternatives are bad for business.
aldoushuxley001 8y ago
But do you now notice a dependence on weed?
- JeffreyKaine 8y ago
  I depend on it for the pain, but it isn't addicting. No cravings or anything like that.

pdfernhout 8y ago

Basic income the solution to the opioid crisis? A lot of financially poor people working three part-time jobs would suddenly become a lot less stressed and have more time to take care of themselves and their families.