Hey - let's give a shout-out to all the druggies out there!

[hedgehog]

Thanks to you, if I need more pain medication, I have to be personally transported 25 miles to the doctor to be personally presented with a written slip which I then hand carry to the pharmacy.

Thanks to you, I have to be personally transported 20 miles to a different doctor to get a refill or any change to my Lyrica dose, where I get a hand written slip to be hand carried to the pharmacy. And as my husband says, just why the Hell is Lyrica on anyone's list of scheduled drugs!

[snooper2]

1. you want me to give my weed back?

[hedgehog]

4. Hey - smoke 'em if you got them - just don't screw up my access to whatever pain meds I need!

[safeinOhio]

2. I had to show my driver license

To buy a can of Brasso last week.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. The druggies aren't the problem. The drug laws & DEA are the problem.

Your question about Lyrica is a poignant reminder of the insanity of the drug laws.

[Scuba]

14. Thank you.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. De nada.

[bluedigger]

5. It's probably on the schedule because it's physically addictive.

Now would you like to explain to me why marijuana is a scheduled drug?

[CBGLuthier]

6. Did some acid and smoked a lot of weed but never took a pill for recreational purposes in my life

But you just slap that big old brush as hard as you can instead of blaming your stupid ass government and the fucking pharmaceutical companies.

[hedgehog]

11. I can measure the increased drug use in my town by the sudden surge in pawnshops -

especially the ones who have a crucible out back for melting down gold and silver objects into an unidentifiable puddle ASAP. I'm starting to think that unless you live within six blocks of such a place, you don't have a dog in this fight. The pill poppers in my town have no prejudices at all - they'll go for weed, acid, whatever is in that blotter paper, cocaine, meth, heroin and Brasso.

[ghostsinthemachine]

23. did a lot of acid and smoked a lotta weed in my life

What was I talking about?

[Hoyt]

7. You do make a point. Last time I was with a friend in the ER, there were two guys in there trying

to get pain meds. As soon as the doc said, "we'll do a drug screen and then see about a prescription," they were up and gone.

The drug laws are a mess too. And there are doctors that cater to drug addicts. Legitimate doctors have become scared of sanctions, including license revocation. Some patients are not getting the pain meds they need for that reason, and folks like you have to go through hassles to get them. Don't have an answer.

[phil89]

8. Stigma inducing, dehumanizing language

and a selfish sentiment. Lovely. It's not people who have an addiction's fault that you have these issues.

[fredamae]

9. The druggies are their excuse

follow the money.

"Druggies" are the excuse to further govt interference/cost control etc with-in the confines of our dr's offices.
Current laws, rules and policies "excite" the numbers of folks abusing the system.
There are, by far...more folks turning to the black market for legitimate needs, who have been denied reasonable and legitimate access to pain relief...who are labeled as drug seekers than there are folks who are addicted and simply "getting high".

Addiction is a problem but it isn't a matter of cops, courts, and jail...it is now, as it has always been...a public health issue.

I have attended a Pain Seminar's and the horror stories from folks who are legitimately trying to treat severe, chronic pain is disgusting, sad and unacceptable.

[marble falls]

10. Don't blame th druggies for oxycontin etc controls, blame big pharma and Congress.

[iscooterliberally]

12. Let's give a shout out to all the drug prohibitionists out there instead.

Drug prohibitionists are the real problem. Druggies would gladly let you walk into any pharmacy and get whatever you want without a prescription. As adults over the age of 21 we should be able to buy our pain meds in the same way that we might by a fifth of whiskey or a box of cigars. Why can we do one and not the other? It's the crazy politicians that wanted to get tough on crime, but got really really stupid on crime and drunk on the power that they stole for themselves. It's time to repeal the controlled substances act in its entirety. The DEA is a redundant and parasitic government agency that provides absolutely no value to society whatsoever.

[Sivafae]

13. I hear what you are saying

For me the issues run very deep and so the only way legislatures can figure out how to deal with it is to put the onus on doctors and patients with legitimate medical issues. The issues that addicts are trying to escape are those that come with are deep poverty; a low minimum wage, few living wage jobs, high economic inequality, financial instability. I mean let's be honest here, it is not like hydrocodone was invented within the last 20 years. Why all the problems now? But instead of asking the hard questions and coming up with solutions, they just make it everyone's problem instead. From what I have heard, an oxy pill can go for up to $50 per pill. That would supplement anyone's min wage job to the point where they can pay their bills. Vermont saw a 200% rise in opiate addiction within the last few years. How does that happen? Poverty, that's how.

[Kurska]

15. You're blaming the wrong people.

DEA is your enemy. Not people struggling with a medical issue.

[In_The_Wind]

16. It's soooo much fun!

It's so hard to get moving when everything hurts.
I can't imagine anyone getting high on Lyrica.

I took it until I decided to buy groceries instead. The co-pay was too high.

[Capt. Obvious]

18. You're welcome

[Taitertots]

19. I blame the prohibitionists

Drugs users didn't make those arbitrary and capricious rules. Prohibitionists did.

But don't let that stop you from kicking drug addicts while they're down.

[cali]

20. hey, hedgehog, have you asked if your dr. will mail the scrip to your pharmacy?

That's what I did with my oxycodone prescription. And Lyrica shouldn't present that problem.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. "Gimme drugs..... Gimme drugs...."

[hunter]

22. The "druggies" didn't do that, the drug warriors did.

Believe me, I feel your pain.

That sort of chronic pain is an intrinsic part of our household dynamics.

Fortunately we don't live 25 miles from doctors or pharmacies.

I try not to think about it too much, otherwise I would become dysfunctionally angry.

There is no reason at all to "supervise" chronic pain patients who have been stable for many years, even decades, as if they are thirteen year olds once caught stealing from dad's liquor cabinet.

Where does it stop? Clearly things like alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee are off limits to the drug warriors because so many people are addicted to those. What purpose is served by making life difficult for chronic pain patients, most who don't even get a "buzz" anymore (if they ever did...) from their prescribed, and considerably less dangerous than Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen, pain medications???

[hedgehog]

24. I notice a lot of people here blaming the government and/or (SHUDDER)

POLITICIANS


If that's so, why not get organized and make this an issue? It might take a while, but when i was a kid, blacks sat at the back of the bus, "working women" (i.e paid for their labor) were secretaries, nurses or teachers. No males were nurses or secretaries , of course, and every working women knew that she was making way below her male counterpart - he had to support a family. Gays were subject to harassment and imprisonment.

I notice the medical marijuana folks are getting some traction. If the problem is the legal system, quit yer whining and organize!

[Fumesucker]

25. Yep, it's always the fault of someone other than the politicians

Bear in mind that people have been "organizing" over civil rights since at least the 1950's and we still aren't there by quite a long shot as Ferguson and Trayvon Martin show very clearly.

[hunter]

27. I'll not mince words, it's the cruel ignorant U.S. Americans and politicians they elect...

... who believe pain is some kind of gift or punishment from a capricious rat-bastard filthy god, and that addiction is a moral failure and not an accident of evolutionary biology just like cancer, deadly pathogens, and many other medical problems.

Before humans, that opium plant was simply frustrating the critters who were trying to eat it. Opium didn't evolve to give Rush Limbaugh a buzz, or comfort the soldier who'd just had his legs blown off. Same with cannabis. That these plants have some great medicinal value is a happy accident.

In a just universe all these believers in the hateful capricious rat bastard god would go to hell where they'd suffer the eternal attentions of demons with cholla cactus pricks.

Lucky for them, I don't believe in that sort of hell. I figure many of them will experience serious pain before they die, waiting patiently in their hospital beds for the button on the intravenous morphine drip to work again.

[Warpy]

26. Don't blame the dopers, blame the freaks trying to control everything

The drug war is 100% wrong. It needs to end, the sooner the better.

Then you could control your own damned pain.

Lyrica is a controlled substance because it relieves pain, not because a few dopers managed to get high on it. Anything that relieves pain is something the DEA wants to choke off at the source.

If you think you're being leaned on, you should see how they lean on doctors, hospitals and pharmacists.

End it.