U.S. - FDA Head Acknowledges Suffering Caused by Opioid Crackdown

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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FDA Head Acknowledges Suffering Caused by Opioid Crackdown
Jacob Sullum
Reason
May 15th, 2018

Yesterday Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration, acknowledged that the crackdown on pain pills, aimed at preventing nonmedical use, is hurting legitimate patients, some of whom have contacted his agency. He announced a July 9 public meeting focusing on the concerns of people who use opioids to relieve chronic pain. The FDA is accepting public comments on the subject through September 10.

"The feedback we received affirmed for us that as we address this crisis, we wouldn't lose sight of the needs of Americans living with chronic pain or coping with pain at the end of life," Gottlieb writes on the FDA's blog. "We've heard the concerns expressed by these individuals about having continued access to necessary pain medication, the fear of being stigmatized as an addict, challenges in finding health care professionals willing to work with or even prescribe opioids, and sadly, for some patients, increased thoughts of or actual suicide because crushing pain was resulting in a loss of quality of life."
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Read the full story here.
 
This is awesome! I'm not sure how much this open public discussion is going to help but i'm glad to here that some people can see through the bullshit.
 
Yeah, Gottlieb is the same guy who wants Kratom illegal even though he probably realizes it's less harmful than, and in some ways equally helpful to prescription opiates for pain patients, so he's full of shit.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
FDA knows and admits it does not care.

Awful.
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Basically.

It's a bad situation. The political environment won't allow for the kind of harm reduction and science based treatment strategy that would of helped so the only option they had was to use blunt force to try and stop more people from becoming addicts. It will work in the long run but everyone already addicted has been written off in the process. It's obvious there needs to be a gutting of the whole health care industry from the top down.
 
avcpl said:
Here's where you can make comments: https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...onic-pain-public-meeting-request-for-comments

currently there are only 69 comments; I would have thought there would be a lot more.

I don't know if it will help, but I guess it can't hurt, so I'll be posting there and if you know anyone else maybe you should encourage them too...
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Thats sad....there are threads in f/ChronicPain on reddit with people bitching about losing their scripts with far more comments than that.
 
LucidSDreamr said:
Thats sad....there are threads in f/ChronicPain on reddit with people bitching about losing their scripts with far more comments than that.
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I don't have a Reddit account, but if someone does that seems like a good place to share the FDA's request for comments.
 
falsifiedhypothesi said:
What do you guys think this open commenting is going to do for policy?
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Probably not a whole lot - governments have calls for input like this all the time and I'm skeptical that it has much of an impact in most cases - but I figure it doesn't hurt to try.

That said, pharmaceutical companies have an incentive to amplify these messages, and in that case they might become more impactful.
 
S.J.P. said:
Probably not a whole lot - governments have calls for input like this all the time and I'm skeptical that it has much of an impact in most cases - but I figure it doesn't hurt to try.

That said, pharmaceutical companies have an incentive to amplify these messages, and in that case they might become more impactful.
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Good point on the pharm companies; I hadn't thought of that.

The other think it could do, is that it could give the media a chance to change the narrative, something they are going to need to do eventually.

The media have been reporting basically the same story for years now and they know that when they do that, people are going to just glaze over and not pay attention; they need new angles to keep eyeballs fixed so they can sell advertising. It's all about money, not accurate information.

But if the media narrative does change, then policy might end up changing too. It's a long shot, but worth a try...
 
Shame on these fuckers! They have a lot of blood on their hands and a whole lot of suffering to answer for!
I will speak up loudly! For many, many people, opiates are the only thing that gives them any quality of life.
It is either that or suicide for many! I think many who are in pain management had to get there through suicide attempts.

Society needs to stop with all the shaming and guilt. Those who do this are part of the problem!

Since when did we write off human beings as being disposable for having a problem? We better write off everyone then.

Makes my blood boil.
 
I just looked at what us chronic pain patients are supposed to be able to do in order to make a comment. My pain is so severe, I cannot focus enough or think clearly enough to understand how I submit a comment. They are making it WAY too complicated for actual chronic pain patients!

If anyone can summarize in a few easy steps how one can submit a comment, please give instructions here so we whom understand this horrific lifelong problem can speak up for the benefit of those who will find themselves in this situation someday!
 
Painful One said:
I think many who are in pain management had to get there through suicide attempts.
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thanks for your passion on this issue.


But i wanted to say that at least in my world, if a pain doctor every thinks your are suicidal or have any type of emotional impulsivity (hey if you'd kill yourself you'd definitley abuse drugs right?), you are cut off immidiately from your drugs. This is one reason i was terrified to ever see a psychiatrist should my pain doctor find out.


I agree that most people in bad chronic pain are suicidal I have been whenever i think my pain will never get better. The fucked up thing is that i think now the opioids are making my condition worse. So now i can't even treat the pain
 
I hope one day the politicians that have aided in this war are struck with some debilitatingly painful condition and are denied opiates under the same rational they have been using to fuck people over with.
 
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