Discussion Chronic pain sufferers and the ever-changing laws

[xtcgrrrl]

Is there any sort of activism that we can do to push back against this bullshit?
Like write every congress person there is and bitch them out?


This cannot go on any longer, unless it's their goal to have people dying & suffering, which it seems like it is.

I’m totally in favor of activism!!! Grassroots democracy works. I think there are already some groups that have been pushing back, namely, chronic pain patient advocacy groups such as the National Pain Advocacy Center.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

I’m totally in favor of activism!!! Grassroots democracy works. I think there are already some groups that have been pushing back, namely, chronic pain patient advocacy groups such as the National Pain Advocacy Center.

Thanks, I will have to look this group up!
One thing that concerns me is how they've been able to push a rift between chronic pain patients & people with addiction.
Many chronic pain patients are being told that it's "addicts fault" that they can't get their meds now.
When in reality, it is the government that is restricting their meds. And a lot of addicts use because they're self medicating & the opioids are helping them.
So both sides have valid reasons that they need opioids, but instead of pointing the finger at the gov, they've tried making chronic pain patients pissed at "addicts".
Of course I dont' like to generalize, as not all pain patients are this way or think this way, but I have seen examples of this mindset in the past when debating this issue with people.

It truly comes down to bodily autonomy. I can't understand how people don't realize this.
The goverment having the ability to restrict & "control" medicines & then deny them to people is a crime against humanity IMO.
It also opened up a door for more control on our health & our wellbeing. No one should HAVE TO suffer in pain, whether it be physical pain or mental pain, just because the government says no & society doesn't think it's "morally right". It's completely BS. And with alcohol being legal, it's also insane hypocrisy.
If you find anymore groups or have any more ideas, I would love to listen xxtcgirrrl! It's a start to at least get the conversation going & keeping it up.
Please feel free to message me any time! And if you get any big threads or discussions going on here, please tag me!
I've been trying over the past few years to be incredibly vocal online, on as many sites as I can & I try to educate people about how opiates were once used for psychiatry and that most of them are safer on the organs & brain over the long term than many legal drugs & chemicals people take everyday. I also share my experiences & how I never once overdosed. I've been doing this everywhere, even if the topic had nothing to do with drugs. lol

And the facts about how Switzerland and other places proved that by letting people use pure, clean diacetylmorphine everyday, they were able to get their lives back & move on & be a part of society again. It's the prohibition, the withdrawals & not having any options or choices that causes so much of the agony of "addiction". It's directly the fault of the drug war.
But I feel I haven't made much progress with a lot of people. People truly believe diacetylmorphine is worse for you than alcohol. And that it's a death sentence & that it can't "possibly help anyone". I've even had people tell me that it was impossible that I "exercised on heroin". When in reality, I DID exercise on heroin, ALOT.
This tells me the propaganda conditioning on people has worked really well, that people will believe their own bias over my own reality & experience.
I lost a handful of friends a few years ago. They were in their 50's and had been using heroin since the 90's and they had never overdosed or anything either. But as soon as fentanyl showed up in the US in everything, they OD'ed and died because they thought they had heroin. This could have been avoided & it really pisses me off.
One of my friends who OD'd, his obituary in thew news paper was so disrespectful. They talked shit about him & his addiction & his past. It was unreal. Most of these friends were also black. This system is completely fuckin' whack & it puts a really heavy feeling on my heart, thinking about all the people who are probably suffering even more than I am. And the friends I lost because of it.


I also now have family members who are in so much pain that their lives are falling apart as well. And doctors REFUSE to give them an opioid.


Opiates need to be legalized for adults. It shouldn't be the states choice in how I get to feel or if I need to get rid of pain.
I appreciate you xxxtcgrrrl!

 

[thegreenhand]

Eventually he had me do an EEG & they found I had a lot of abnormal brainwaves, so they did a catscan & my brain was "normal" (even after 20+ years of hard drug use, my brain is normal? Interesting). And then they basically shrugged their shoulders. Like gee thanks for all your insight & help.

using neuroimaging to certain make diagnoses is not that reliable (other than things like epilepsy). we just don't know how to identify biomarkers in all the data.

and the idea of a "normal" brain is already kind of an ill-conceived concept. it's very hard to identify a 'normal brain' that we can make comparisons to in the first place

that said, a lot of doctors suck and are quite dismissive. sorry you've had to deal with that.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

Thanks, I will have to look this group up!
One thing that concerns me is how they've been able to push a rift between chronic pain patients & people with addiction.
Many chronic pain patients are being told that it's "addicts fault" that they can't get their meds now.
When in reality, it is the government that is restricting their meds. And a lot of addicts use because they're self medicating & the opioids are helping them.
So both sides have valid reasons that they need opioids, but instead of pointing the finger at the gov, they've tried making chronic pain patients pissed at "addicts".
Of course I dont' like to generalize, as not all pain patients are this way or think this way, but I have seen examples of this mindset in the past when debating this issue with people.

It truly comes down to bodily autonomy. I can't understand how people don't realize this.
The goverment having the ability to restrict & "control" medicines & then deny them to people is a crime against humanity IMO.
It also opened up a door for more control on our health & our wellbeing. No one should HAVE TO suffer in pain, whether it be physical pain or mental pain, just because the government says no & society doesn't think it's "morally right". It's completely BS. And with alcohol being legal, it's also insane hypocrisy.
If you find anymore groups or have any more ideas, I would love to listen xxtcgirrrl! It's a start to at least get the conversation going & keeping it up.
Please feel free to message me any time! And if you get any big threads or discussions going on here, please tag me!
I've been trying over the past few years to be incredibly vocal online, on as many sites as I can & I try to educate people about how opiates were once used for psychiatry and that most of them are safer on the organs & brain over the long term than many legal drugs & chemicals people take everyday. I also share my experiences & how I never once overdosed. I've been doing this everywhere, even if the topic had nothing to do with drugs. lol

And the facts about how Switzerland and other places proved that by letting people use pure, clean diacetylmorphine everyday, they were able to get their lives back & move on & be a part of society again. It's the prohibition, the withdrawals & not having any options or choices that causes so much of the agony of "addiction". It's directly the fault of the drug war.
But I feel I haven't made much progress with a lot of people. People truly believe diacetylmorphine is worse for you than alcohol. And that it's a death sentence & that it can't "possibly help anyone". I've even had people tell me that it was impossible that I "exercised on heroin". When in reality, I DID exercise on heroin, ALOT.
This tells me the propaganda conditioning on people has worked really well, that people will believe their own bias over my own reality & experience.
I lost a handful of friends a few years ago. They were in their 50's and had been using heroin since the 90's and they had never overdosed or anything either. But as soon as fentanyl showed up in the US in everything, they OD'ed and died because they thought they had heroin. This could have been avoided & it really pisses me off.
One of my friends who OD'd, his obituary in thew news paper was so disrespectful. They talked shit about him & his addiction & his past. It was unreal. Most of these friends were also black. This system is completely fuckin' whack & it puts a really heavy feeling on my heart, thinking about all the people who are probably suffering even more than I am. And the friends I lost because of it.


I also now have family members who are in so much pain that their lives are falling apart as well. And doctors REFUSE to give them an opioid.


Opiates need to be legalized for adults. It shouldn't be the states choice in how I get to feel or if I need to get rid of pain.
I appreciate you xxxtcgrrrl!

Thanks, I appreciate you too! What you are trying to do online as per opiate use is admirable!! I believe the same thing - that so many of the problems associated with illegal drugs pertain to access. I can show you studies that have been done where, when IV opiate users were provided with an unlimited supply of their DOC, their use actually went DOWN. THIS is the way to save lives; we all know that the War On Drugs was racially motivated, and many other 1st world countries tend to take their cues from America, because we’re basically a hegemony. (I did not realize exactly HOW MUCH power America has exerted over public policy WORLDWIDE until recently!)

Give me a minute, I want to locate those studies and other facts to back up my statements (as a graduate social work student as well as a drug user and chronic pain patient this is of intense interest to me!)

 

[StickToYourGuns]

This doesn’t make sense, tho…FL has the largest population of elderly people in the country, and I would assume that many or even most of those would require scheduled medications? For end-of-life care, or managing their various aches and pains, or for the injuries incurred due to falling down? Geez. Maybe I’m not gonna retire to Florida, then, as is traditional for NY Jews

It's not true - I've lived in Florida for 32 years. It's just a hell off a lot harder to get them; not impossible.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

Ok here’s one link I found to a study that says that not only did the users who were administered safe, clean heroin as a prescription still alive at the end of 6 years, but many of them (over half!) had a significant decrease in the use of non-prescribed heroin, cocaine and benzos (weed use remained about the same, which I found highly amusing.)

Evaluating long-term effects of heroin-assisted treatment: the results of a 6-year follow-up - PubMed

Since January 1994, heroin-assisted treatment for opiate addicts has been available in Switzerland. This is the first report of the long-term effects of this form of treatment. The report examines subjects who entered a study involving medical prescription of opiates (Projekt zur ärztlichen...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

This method is called Heroin-Assisted Treatment, and apparently the UK is doing this also (the above study was performed in Switzerland; ofc nothing that radical could ever happen here)

Heroin Assisted Treatment | Transform

transformdrugs.org

 

[thegreenhand]

and apparently the UK is doing this also

unfortunately it's falling out of fashion in the UK

Pioneering Middlesbrough heroin addiction clinic to close

The heroin assisted treatment programme was the first of its kind in England when it opened in 2019.

www.bbc.com

 

[xtcgrrrl]

unfortunately it's falling out of fashion in the UK

Pioneering Middlesbrough heroin addiction clinic to close

The heroin assisted treatment programme was the first of its kind in England when it opened in 2019.

www.bbc.com

It might be falling out of fashion, but this article is fantastic! It’s literal proof that safe, controlled access works wonders, both individually and for the community. The person profiled here explains how vastly his life has changed for the better, and the statistics prove that crime rates went down, which benefits the community as a whole. Now WTF is wrong with this approach?! Oh, yeah. The social stigma attached to recreational drug use. And also, selfish people don’t like to see their tax dollars going to benefit other people.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Is there any sort of activism that we can do to push back against this bullshit?
Like write every congress person there is and bitch them out?


This cannot go on any longer, unless it's their goal to have people dying & suffering, which it seems like it is.

Since when does congress give a fuck about anyone that isn't s corporation?

 

[LucidSDreamr]

This doesn’t make sense, tho…FL has the largest population of elderly people in the country, and I would assume that many or even most of those would require scheduled medications? For end-of-life care, or managing their various aches and pains, or for the injuries incurred due to falling down? Geez. Maybe I’m not gonna retire to Florida, then, as is traditional for NY Jews

I'll give you an example. A family friend has brain cancer at 91 and had a piece od his brain removed and the heaviest they would give him to take home was tramadol

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Yes, but they didnt shut down their economy, implement martial law and try to coerce state employees into taking experimental MRNA modulators by threatening to make them all unemployed. Im not so much against trepidation when it comes to doctors and opiet prescriptions, but i really dont like this buisness of putting patients on secret lists (that are then shared on a regional to national level). The whole thing smacks of malpractice - moreso legally re data confidentiality. Makes you wonder who else can access that data aswel, being labeled a ''drug seeker'' is going to hurt a person in all kinds of ways.

They didn't shut down their economy but you go to prison ans get your neck sliced by gangs while the guards place bets on how long you survive,... for weed.

Great freedom.

I'm with you that vaccines for covid at least shouldn't be forced but Florida is no bastion of freedom. It has one of the highest rates of imprisonment. Especially for drugs.

And yes Florida has that sick data base algorithm that ranks peole on their likelihood of being addicts in bullshit metrics like age, income, etc. It's the most unjust shit ever.

The worst thing about Florida was the people. And I won't go into further detail as to not offend but ive lived from the Georgia border to Miami to Orlando.

I am in California and I feel like I've escaped hell and don't intend to ever set foot in Florida or the south again.

Look up youthful offender "test of heart" to give you an idea how much joy Florida prison guards take in literally murdering people that get into prison for nothing.

 

[Foreigner]

Years ago, when something was painful, you would go to the doctor, maybe get a prescription after a few tests. Then you would either feel better, or visit the doctor again and get something else. This system worked like a well-oiled machine for many years. The current assumption people have made is that because of the overprescribed, overuse of prescriptions, namely opioids, people escalated from prescription pain medicines to street drugs. The theory is that people with broken legs, toothaches, sprained ankles, or whatever ailment were getting unwarranted, strong pain medicines that were unnecessary and led them down a dark path into addiction (and possibly crime).
The laws have changed so drastically in the last 15 years that it has become very difficult to get pain medicine prescribed even if you need it. The scale has tipped into the opposite direction, too little is being prescribed and taken. These changes have made a devastating impact for two reasons: patients who have been on long-term prescribed pain medicine for chronic illnesses were denied their prescriptions, causing them to look elsewhere for relief, and the new people suffering from chronic illnesses and pain can't obtain a needed prescription and are treated like addicts for wanting them.

As a patient, you have to tiptoe on a thin line between advocating for yourself and appearing to be drug-seeking and denied medication. If you're "flagged" in the system as drug-seeking, you won't get any prescriptions in your town, or county, or state. This delicate tiptoeing is clouded even further for ex-addicts who are chronically ill.

Who should decide what kind of pain deserves prescription medicine? Who should decide how much or for how long? Why are we not allowed to decide for ourselves if pain medicine can be used to manage an illness? A person can buy as much beer or liquor from any store. We are allowed to decide when to stop drinking (an addictive substance), vaping nicotine, but not pain medicine?

Modern medicine is very "all or nothing" with this kind of stuff. There's always one ruling paradigm until the regime changes and I hate it. It's because they don't know how to do individualized medicine. They can't recognize that some patients are OK on long-term opiate support and won't escalate to something worse, while others might. When my pain was 10/10, I was lucky to have a doctor who would just rx me 100 dilaudid at a time, because she knew I would use responsibly. She also saw me screaming in her office one day in pain. I was literally in so much pain that I fainted. My long term goal was to not have pain because I didn't like being on the stuff. I'm lucky that my condition is resolved now... but I just really feel for people who have pain conditions in this current system. I know people who keep getting bumped around to different "departments" in medicine to treat them for their pain, all the while they are suffering. It's like... fucking numb their pain already you assholes.

The system is totally fucked. They got a whole generation hooked on Oxy and then pulled the plug, with very little recourse. They have also totally, utterly and completely failed to cop to the fact that most of the street fentanyl is coming from China. The people seeking a doctor's rx want legit monitoring, they don't want to play Russian roulette with street opiate. But in Canada, there is a crisis now because of shortage of family physicians... so where do they think people are going to turn to? They'll turn to China.

Pain relief is supposed to be a human (medical) right. The WHO says so.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Modern medicine is very "all or nothing" with this kind of stuff. There's always one ruling paradigm until the regime changes and I hate it. It's because they don't know how to do individualized medicine. They can't recognize that some patients are OK on long-term opiate support and won't escalate to something worse, while others might. When my pain was 10/10, I was lucky to have a doctor who would just rx me 100 dilaudid at a time, because she knew I would use responsibly. She also saw me screaming in her office one day in pain. I was literally in so much pain that I fainted. My long term goal was to not have pain because I didn't like being on the stuff. I'm lucky that my condition is resolved now... but I just really feel for people who have pain conditions in this current system. I know people who keep getting bumped around to different "departments" in medicine to treat them for their pain, all the while they are suffering. It's like... fucking numb their pain already you assholes.

The system is totally fucked. They got a whole generation hooked on Oxy and then pulled the plug, with very little recourse. They have also totally, utterly and completely failed to cop to the fact that most of the street fentanyl is coming from China. The people seeking a doctor's rx want legit monitoring, they don't want to play Russian roulette with street opiate. But in Canada, there is a crisis now because of shortage of family physicians... so where do they think people are going to turn to? They'll turn to China.

Pain relief is supposed to be a human (medical) right. The WHO says so.

Massive amount of fent are manufactured in Mexico and South America now too

 

[90sdance]

They didn't shut down their economy but you go to prison ans get your neck sliced by gangs while the guards place bets on how long you survive,... for weed.

Great freedom.

I'm with you that vaccines for covid at least shouldn't be forced but Florida is no bastion of freedom. It has one of the highest rates of imprisonment. Especially for drugs.

And yes Florida has that sick data base algorithm that ranks peole on their likelihood of being addicts in bullshit metrics like age, income, etc. It's the most unjust shit ever.

The worst thing about Florida was the people. And I won't go into further detail as to not offend but ive lived from the Georgia border to Miami to Orlando.

I am in California and I feel like I've escaped hell and don't intend to ever set foot in Florida or the south again.

Look up youthful offender "test of heart" to give you an idea how much joy Florida prison guards take in literally murdering people that get into prison for nothing.

You have me all wrong, im pretty liberal - but you know what, when the liberal establishment goes full fascist then fuck em. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Whoever stands up against people being forced to wear fucking armbands in order to be served food is a friend of mine. Now if it so happens that these friends are confederate flag waving conservitives then so be it, because glory be glory be i was blind but now i see ! God bless those people, God bless the state of Florida and God bless your second amendment (because without a healthy fear of being massacred by pissed off rednecks - ''certain groups'' WILL overstep the mark with their new world order shit).

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Ok here’s one link I found to a study that says that not only did the users who were administered safe, clean heroin as a prescription still alive at the end of 6 years, but many of them (over half!) had a significant decrease in the use of non-prescribed heroin, cocaine and benzos (weed use remained about the same, which I found highly amusing.)

Evaluating long-term effects of heroin-assisted treatment: the results of a 6-year follow-up - PubMed

Since January 1994, heroin-assisted treatment for opiate addicts has been available in Switzerland. This is the first report of the long-term effects of this form of treatment. The report examines subjects who entered a study involving medical prescription of opiates (Projekt zur ärztlichen...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

This method is called Heroin-Assisted Treatment, and apparently the UK is doing this also (the above study was performed in Switzerland; ofc nothing that radical could ever happen here)

Heroin Assisted Treatment | Transform

transformdrugs.org

Awesome!
I need to start bookmarking & keeping all of these studies & such. I wish I would have done so in the past.
There use to be an Australian website too, I forget what it was called. But they did a study where they intentionally tried overdosing people (who had a tolerance) with methadone & heroin & they barely had any adverse side effects from it. It went on to describe how poly-drug use is the main cause of "opioid deaths". And that "opioid deaths" are wrongfully counted. For example if some is on prozac & drinks a bottle of vodka, then pops a benzo & then a few pain pills & OD's.... it still gets counted as an "opioid death" just because there is an opioid in the toxicology. This way they can boost the numbers & make opioids look even more scary (even though ironically they still don't outnumber annual alcohol & tobacco deaths).

But of course, now this site is no where to be found.
I have been speaking with you & some of my family today & it breaks my heart the pain my siblings are going through.
I even wrote an email to that National Pain Advocacy Center. I basically told them thank you for doing what they do & gave them a little bit about my history & how wrong I think this all is. I dunno if it'll make any difference, but at least I tried. I said something. I asked what else I can do to help other than donate, cause I can barely afford to live as it is.

When I used heroin, I had a great dealer who listened to me. I told him I never wanted mine cut with benadryl or whatever other cutting agents dealers used. So he only provided me mine in rock form & I was able to either do it raw or cut it myself with something a little smoother on the nose. Years of doing this showed me that people are capable of taking heroin, living, functioning & being present in life, especially if they have clean product & know what they're doing.
I can't even count how many times alcohol has landed me in bad places. It's almost like it's legal because they know it'll make people do stupid shit, which equals more people behind bars.

Heroin use to be totally legal in America back in the early 1900's and later. Society never collapsed or anything back then. In fact, I think people were probably happier & more productive back then. lol The drug war definitely is racially motivated. Now it's warped into just human motivated & destroying anybody of any color.
I have read the studies in Switzerland about how new drug addiction rates went down, overdoses went down, crime went down. Virtually everything about drugs gets better when people can access them safely, not be stigmatized for it & are given the right tools & education on how to use them safely.
Something needs to change. People deserve better!!!

I too have a lot of interest & passion in this whole thing. It truly boils my blood.

Today I went to the post office. I felt miserable the entire time, but I did it. That was my accomplishment for the day. lol
You have a friend here xxxtcgrrrl & I will stand with you and continue to speak out against this hypocritical war on our bodies, minds & souls.

Since when does congress give a fuck about anyone that isn't s corporation?

You're absolutely right.

honestly, Im surprised they don't bring heroin back or legalize drugs. Corporations could make bank off these products.
but at the same time, they already make bank off their shitty maintenance drugs, prisons & disgusting psychiatric meds. Can't have people actually feeling good though, just lobotomized and compliant.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

You have me all wrong, im pretty liberal - but you know what, when the liberal establishment goes full fascist then fuck em. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Whoever stands up against people being forced to wear fucking armbands in order to be served food is a friend of mine. Now if it so happens that these friends are confederate flag waving conservitives then so be it, because glory be glory be i was blind but now i see ! God bless those people, God bless the state of Florida and God bless your second amendment (because without a healthy fear of being massacred by pissed off rednecks - ''certain groups'' WILL overstep the mark with their new world order shit).

"Liberals" in American government aren't classical liberal which is really much closer to a libertarian. Democrats have bastardized the term liberal. Democrats are nothing more than authoritarian right wingers that are secular (athiest).

Amd I'm sorry you're too confused to see that Republicans are equally as authoritarian. You ate their freedom bullshit hook line and sinker. They want to ban every single thing that doesn't align with Christian version of sharia law.

They want to ban drugs, weed, being gay, abortions, condoms, day after pills, transsexuals, adoptions by gays, teaching of solid evolutionary science in school, athiesm in government...i could go on forever with the shit they want to ban....and it as asanine as Democrats wanting to ban peope from working if they don't get the Vax
.
You're very confused my guy. Neither of these parties stand for freedom. They stand for their corporate donors and on the republican side they have the additional defect of standing for evil middle eastern cults (religion)....which you seem to believe in to with your God ranting.

You ppl that think God's voice is in your head and heart arre a dangerous group of people that cannot be reasoned with because you live a schizophrenic delusion of an imaginary spirit telling you what is right rather than looking around and looking at data to know what is right

To get this thread back on topic Go pray to the air that people that are suffering horrible disease and pain (gods plan right? ) get some fucking medication for it.

Otherwise there's a politics and religions subforum and this ain't it

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I’m totally in favor of activism!!! Grassroots democracy works. I think there are already some groups that have been pushing back, namely, chronic pain patient advocacy groups such as the National Pain Advocacy Center.

I'm gonna rain on your parade a little. Grassroots activism works only if many peole beleiev in the cause.

Nobody understands the pain of chronic pain until they are kn their deathbed dying of cancer or jabe their spine shattered in a car accident. Then suddenly they will.care a lot about opioids.

But to the average non chronic pain sufferer, they simply do not give a shit. Some even are brainwashed by drug war propaganda and hate peole in chronic Pain and equate them with the junkie that broke their car window.

Grassroots? Nah. "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun." -Mao. But he missed money also.

You have some celebrities with horrible chronic pain like lady gaga that are too scared to advocate for the issue due to America's religiously brainwashed drug hatred....until they individually need the drug. But it's too late by then and they'll die in agony. Lady gaga is famous sonshe gets her script of whatever she wants and everyone else can get fucked. I'm sure she cares about the issue but American R words would destroy her if she advocated for it

 

[lolis my thesis]

The local Center did brain surgery on a poor chap, sent him home with cradle cap, soft part of his dome, while they sculpted him a new skull piece. Not one pain pill for that guy.

yep it sucks having fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue, it's so vague and very much a trash can diagnosis. Like if they don't know what it is, fibro or chronic fatigue it is!
Even if it is more likely from whiplash complications. Like, all my problems come from a whiplash accident.
Gawdawful. also had MS ruled out with another MRI of my brain, look ma, no lesions!
So more questions than answers, especially about where my meds will come from in the future.

My drug use also caused my divorce, in part. And having my parents trust and not abusing my meds has been rewarding. My son and daughter don't have to worry about me nodding out from taking too much drugs anymore, at least not as often. They are 23, and 21, and very much the reason for me to keep trying. Them and my ever giving, boomer aged, parents.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

I'm gonna rain on your parade a little. Grassroots activism works only if many peole beleiev in the cause.

Nobody understands the pain of chronic pain until they are kn their deathbed dying of cancer or jabe their spine shattered in a car accident. Then suddenly they will.care a lot about opioids.

But to the average non chronic pain sufferer, they simply do not give a shit. Some even are brainwashed by drug war propaganda and hate peole in chronic Pain and equate them with the junkie that broke their car window.

Grassroots? Nah. "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun." -Mao. But he missed money also.

You have some celebrities with horrible chronic pain like lady gaga that are too scared to advocate for the issue due to America's religiously brainwashed drug hatred....until they individually need the drug. But it's too late by then and they'll die in agony. Lady gaga is famous sonshe gets her script of whatever she wants and everyone else can get fucked. I'm sure she cares about the issue but American R words would destroy her if she advocated for it

Grassroots advocacy works if enough people not only believe in it but act on it. But how do we *get to* that “enough?” It starts with a few. My parents have been activists all of their lives. My father is the co-founder of the New Jersey Green Party. He knows that, within his lifetime, likely none of the candidates they put forth will successfully be elected to office. But with each election cycle, more and more people become disenfranchised and disgusted with having only 2 choices, bad and worse. People like you and me, who dislike the Democrats for their hypocrisy and their lies, but hate the Republicans even more for wanting to drag us backwards by 50 years.

Grassroots democracy starts with a highly motivated minority. Any efforts made in the very beginning may fail, yes. But if you never try, you definitely WILL fail.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

The local Center did brain surgery on a poor chap, sent him home with cradle cap, soft part of his dome, while they sculpted him a new skull piece. Not one pain pill for that guy.

yep it sucks having fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue, it's so vague and very much a trash can diagnosis. Like if they don't know what it is, fibro or chronic fatigue it is!
Even if it is more likely from whiplash complications. Like, all my problems come from a whiplash accident.
Gawdawful. also had MS ruled out with another MRI of my brain, look ma, no lesions!
So more questions than answers, especially about where my meds will come from in the future.

My drug use also caused my divorce, in part. And having my parents trust and not abusing my meds has been rewarding. My son and daughter don't have to worry about me nodding out from taking too much drugs anymore, at least not as often. They are 23, and 21, and very much the reason for me to keep trying. Them and my ever giving, boomer aged, parents.

I have fibromyalgia