No doubt you’ve heard about the “Opioid Epidemic” and how it’s killing people. There’s no doubt that there are people who abuse opioids, but as someone who has had chronic back pain for 13 years, there are 5 things I want you to keep in mind before you retweet the latest article about this new drug war. Why? Because the overreaction is just as dangerous as the problem. On behalf of so many people in pain, please read this. The last reason will be how this relates to CoViD.
1. If the death stats from opioid deaths seem startling, that’s because they mix in deaths from heroin with deaths from legal medication. That’s a flagrant attempt to inflate the numbers. If you ask someone about opioids, they’ll tell you what they know about prescription painkillers. No one, except those trying to inflate the numbers, would think heroin.
2. Prescription medication is already hard to get. It’s prescribed by a doctor. It doesn’t need to be harder to get. There are people in chronic pain this drug war is hurting. I don’t care what documentary you saw, unless you’re a doctor, you don’t have any business second guessing a doctor who already has to jump through regulatury hoops and redtape to prescribe medication. Not only are pain patients stigmatised but so are their doctors, all because people are looking for a new drug war to wage now that their favourite drug to bust people with, weed, is legal in so many places.
3. Not everyone gets addicted to pain medication. Just how not everyone who drinks alcohol becomes an alcoholic, not everyone who takes pain medication, even for a wide time span, gets addicted. Addiction is in the brain, not the substance. Take me, for example, I regularly undermedicate. To simply say opioids are addictive is a false statement. Not everyone gets addicted to drugs, gambling, etc. People can get addicted to pain medication, just how people can get addicted or not to other things. Stop repeating false talking points.
4. Legitimate chronic pain patients are the ones hurting the most from this. Since heroin gets lumped into the opioid epidemic mix that means that those with a pain medication prescription are automatically lumped into a group that includes criminals. Ask anyone with chronic pain and they will tell you how they are routinely treated like a criminal by doctors, pharmacists and society because of how skewed the opioid problem is presented.
5. And last but certainly not least, forcing people to rely on other non opioid medication for their chronic pain, just so you can feel better about yourself, can cause more harm than good. That’s what I learned this week. Because I routinely avoided pain medication and used OTC medication, I have developed kidney disease. I was told I shouldn’t expect to live to see retirement age because the ibuprofen I needed to make the pain bearable was much greater than the prescription pain medication I would have needed. As a result, I now have only 69% kidney function. If I had kept to prescription pain medication, I would have needed much less medication, but because I bought into the big scary “Opioid Epidemic” I fucked up my kidneys with OTC medicine. And chronic kidney disease, which I now have thanks to avoiding opioids, makes me more vulnerable to CoViD.
If this sounds like I’m directing this to you, the reader, it’s because entirely too many people have misconceptions about chronic pain and pain medication. If you, however, are one of the rare people who has done your research and spoken to chronic pain patients before formulating your opinion on the “Opioid Epidemic”, then I salute you for your independent thinking and thank you.
1. If the death stats from opioid deaths seem startling, that’s because they mix in deaths from heroin with deaths from legal medication. That’s a flagrant attempt to inflate the numbers. If you ask someone about opioids, they’ll tell you what they know about prescription painkillers. No one, except those trying to inflate the numbers, would think heroin.
2. Prescription medication is already hard to get. It’s prescribed by a doctor. It doesn’t need to be harder to get. There are people in chronic pain this drug war is hurting. I don’t care what documentary you saw, unless you’re a doctor, you don’t have any business second guessing a doctor who already has to jump through regulatury hoops and redtape to prescribe medication. Not only are pain patients stigmatised but so are their doctors, all because people are looking for a new drug war to wage now that their favourite drug to bust people with, weed, is legal in so many places.
3. Not everyone gets addicted to pain medication. Just how not everyone who drinks alcohol becomes an alcoholic, not everyone who takes pain medication, even for a wide time span, gets addicted. Addiction is in the brain, not the substance. Take me, for example, I regularly undermedicate. To simply say opioids are addictive is a false statement. Not everyone gets addicted to drugs, gambling, etc. People can get addicted to pain medication, just how people can get addicted or not to other things. Stop repeating false talking points.
4. Legitimate chronic pain patients are the ones hurting the most from this. Since heroin gets lumped into the opioid epidemic mix that means that those with a pain medication prescription are automatically lumped into a group that includes criminals. Ask anyone with chronic pain and they will tell you how they are routinely treated like a criminal by doctors, pharmacists and society because of how skewed the opioid problem is presented.
5. And last but certainly not least, forcing people to rely on other non opioid medication for their chronic pain, just so you can feel better about yourself, can cause more harm than good. That’s what I learned this week. Because I routinely avoided pain medication and used OTC medication, I have developed kidney disease. I was told I shouldn’t expect to live to see retirement age because the ibuprofen I needed to make the pain bearable was much greater than the prescription pain medication I would have needed. As a result, I now have only 69% kidney function. If I had kept to prescription pain medication, I would have needed much less medication, but because I bought into the big scary “Opioid Epidemic” I fucked up my kidneys with OTC medicine. And chronic kidney disease, which I now have thanks to avoiding opioids, makes me more vulnerable to CoViD.
If this sounds like I’m directing this to you, the reader, it’s because entirely too many people have misconceptions about chronic pain and pain medication. If you, however, are one of the rare people who has done your research and spoken to chronic pain patients before formulating your opinion on the “Opioid Epidemic”, then I salute you for your independent thinking and thank you.
Last edited:
