Do we have an Advocate for Opioids
I'm sure the topic has been discussed, but after scanning through, I haven't seen anything. I posted something on my FB and hours later, Fox News had an opinion peace with the same comparison. Chronic pain sufferers are the ones being punished in the Opioid "crisis" not the ones abusing or od'ing on opioids. How do they plan on stopping illegal drug use? Similarly to how the lawful gun owner is/will be targeted but how will the get illegal guns out of the hands of the criminals? It's not prescription drugs that are causing drug overdoses; it's counterfeit drugs that contain fentanyl or drugs being mixed with other things. With the crackdown of prescription drugs when the pain clinics were shutdown, heroin made a huge comeback. It's cheaper and easier to get.
Do we have an advocate who can go before Congress to educate them on those numbers? The article on Fox News has hard facts, but I'm sure they are easily accessible. I believe the percentage is less than 1% of the overdoses are from prescription drugs. Most of us take them responsibly.
CGRPs don't promise all of us relief, and the costs may make them unaffordable. What other options do we have if they let fear mongering take away our one small relief from severe pain to tolerable? We are already jump through hoops to get them, and they are reducing our quantities to the ridiculous. We can't NOT fight!
Very likely, your only advocate is you—and me—and maybe other readers here. Write your Congressman and senators protesting that anti-opioid policies will cause collateral damage to the innocent.
As a migraine patient you do not need to take opioids to end up losing important treatment options. I do not take any opioids, but I now have learned that the anti-drug hysteria is leading to efforts to ban gabapentin. For me, this drug is a critical, irreplaceable component in my preventive drug protocol. Without it I can (and I have) suffered 5 migraine attacks daily. No alternative drug works.
Without active advocacy for yourself, you will find that legislators will follow the hysteria and not take into account the good things that certain drugs do for us. Write your legislators.
Hi Constance Boone and Dizzy1i,
There are a few organizations you may be interested in looking into if you'd like to become active in this area.
U.S. Pain Foundation is an organization that works on advocacy as well; https://uspainfoundation.org/advocacy.
I hope that helps!
Nancy
