Hello Guys & Gals
I'm always looking for new articles on Chronic Pain and what is being done in the US to help us all receive the proper treatment from our doctors and medical team. The War On Drugs has unfortunately not done any of us any good at all. Instead of focusing on the real problem with addicts, they have turned their attention to those of us who reguire these meds to help us live a more functional life and the doctors & medical staff who still believe that chronic pain is an illness and needs to be treated as one.
The Pain Relief Network is one of my favorite sites for checking in and seeing what's happening in the US to counter the DEA's misguided focus on those of us who are legitimate pain patients and Not placing their focus on the street drug users and addicts.
For me, it's like the DEA has chosen to attack the pain community because it's the easier course and is like shooting fish in a barrel instead of going out in the ocean of illegals and fishing the ocean of drug dealers and addicts all over this country. We happen to be easy targets for them and we don't carry guns and make it tough on them. They attempt to make themselves look good in the news media and for the rest of society that have no idea what or how these medications can work to help keep us employed and living are lives as normal as possible.
Begin today to start advocating for all of the Pain patiets in your community. Join the Pain Relief Network and show them your support of their efforts.
Thank you
Betty
"The Problem
People in severe pain are unable to mobilize to defend their rights. Chronic pain is a disease and when left untreated sufferers often find it beyond their power to place telephone calls or use computers. These people cannot work, attend to their families, enjoy social or sexual relationships, or participate in holiday celebrations. When pain is overwhelming, they cannot think clearly or even sleep. 50 to 70 million Americans live in chronic disabling pain. According to a 1999 survey, one third described their pain as “almost the worst pain one can possibly imagine.1”
Over the past twenty years the medical community, in concert with policy makers, worked in good faith within the current legal paradigm attempting to get pain treated. Safe harbor laws were enacted, medical board guidelines drafted, and for a short while, a few doctors began to treat chronic pain with opioids.
In 2001, the United States Department of Justice unleashed a torrent of criminal prosecutions against physicians and called this crackdown the “Oxycontin Action Plan.” All over the United States conscientious physicians have been prosecuted, jailed, or have lost their licenses to practice medicine. Dr. William Hurwitz, a pioneering pain physician, was tried and convicted of violating the Controlled Substances Act. He is presently serving a 25-year term in federal prison. Dr. Ronald McIver is serving 30 years, and Dr. Freddie Williams is serving a life sentence. There are countless other examples.
Due to this public health disaster and humanitarian catastrophe, untold numbers of our trusting citizens have been unable to recover from injuries or illnesses that would, with proper treatment, be entirely manageable. Unable to find relief, these pain victims are often driven to suicide.
Patients are routinely required to sign unilateral “pain contracts,” promising to see only the designated physician for care, relinquishing their rights to visit emergency rooms, and to use more than one pharmacy. Often the patient must agree to waive his right to medical privacy, and permit government agents unlimited review of his medical records in order to be eligible for
opioid therapy. One such “contract” required that the patient not “anger any county employee.”
Violation of these contractual provisions may result in draconian sanctions imposed by the physician, including the cessation of pain treatment. Patients are forced to sell businesses, give up jobs, and to relinquish custody of their children. As a consequence of being labeled “non-compliant,” the abandoned patient will find it nearly impossible to procure replacement care."
http://www.painreliefnetwork.org/prn/co … n-pain.php
Excerpts from PRN's Constitutional Claim on Behalf of Americans In Pain
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Tami Activist PRN
Nonprofit NonPartisan 501(C)(3) Corporation
"The moral and ethical obligation of physicians to relieve suffering has become a duty to abandon; under threat of drug war prosecution." Alex
Chronic Pain Community 
