For some wounded veterans, strong prescription drugs can be cause of more pain

slimvictor

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SUMMARY
Some veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home to face another battle: addiction to narcotic painkillers prescribed by their doctors. Aaron Glantz of the Center for Investigative Reporting takes a look at whether these wounded warriors are being overmedicated with prescription opiates.

Watch the video or read the transcript at

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec13/veterans_10-03.html
 
Fuck off Aaron Glantz. It's not your job to decide if doctors are giving wounded soldiers too much medication. These soldiers deserve massive amounts of pain killers for life if they so choose. They are going to doctors and not breaking any laws. That's between the doctor, the patient, and the government.
 
Fuck off Aaron Glantz. It's not your job to decide if doctors are giving wounded soldiers too much medication.

Governments are obsessional about the private lives of other people, especially when there is money involved. The government would prefer these veterans drain their life savings on rum or bourbon (or vodka or scotch) because that's what a lot of veterans do here in Australia. Their doctors won't help them, so sure enough they turn to the bottle. Alcohol industry loves trauma, emotional pain, and doctors who won't give their patients narcotic painkillers - and so does the government - because, said one wise man, they both make a very nice comfortable profiteering scheme out of alcohol sales - those affected by emotional pain, trauma, and doctors who won't relieve their pain will inevitably turn to something they CAN get their fucking hands on - ALCOHOL.

These soldiers deserve massive amounts of pain killers for life if they so choose.

Yep. They sure do. Imaging suffering from chronic pain with PTSD thrown in for good measure - not a good deal, that's for sure. They deserve all the respect and empathy they can get. They fought for their country...and are now treated like outsiders or rejects by the very society they were serving. If I were a veteran and I didn't believe in the non-aggression principle I'd just right about kill whoever said that I wasn't entitled to pain medication to eliminate as much pain as possible.

They are going to doctors and not breaking any laws. That's between the doctor, the patient, and the government.

The first part is correct. But sorry, the second part needs amending. The government should NOT be involved in anything between a doctor and his or her patient, nor, as far as I'm concerned, does it have ANY right to.
 
overmedicated... such a grabby journalist-y word. its all relative. unless youre OD'ing and dying, its all opinion as to whether youre over medicated or not.

soldiers go through some serious trauma, mental and physical, and if they want to get hooked on opiates, they should have the option. however i wish there were more information available to them, to hear some veteran junkies tell their story, how in the long run it will just give them more pain and problems,
 
I think that the soldiers deserve high-quality medical and psychological care, but I don't feel confident that they are getting it.

After Vietnam, the soldiers who had given themselves and their lives to the war effort were met with a cold reaction by the public once they returned, and had insufficient benefits and medical psychological care (i.e. no support from the government). This is why the number of homeless in the US exploded (not to mention the polices instituted by Reagan in the 1980s).

The same thing is happening with the current wars. The US government uses young peoples' lives, and basically throws them away like trash once they have gotten all they can get. :(
 
The first part is correct. But sorry, the second part needs amending. The government should NOT be involved in anything between a doctor and his or her patient, nor, as far as I'm concerned, does it have ANY right to.

Didn't say it was right. Just saying what the case is. The government needs to be about as involved in drug laws and medical care as they were in the early 1800's. Which is to say not at all. Worked fine then.
 
Fuck off Aaron Glantz. It's not your job to decide if doctors are giving wounded soldiers too much medication. These soldiers deserve massive amounts of pain killers for life if they so choose. They are going to doctors and not breaking any laws. That's between the doctor, the patient, and the government.

Why the government?

I understand patient. I understand doctor. But why should the government be involved?
 
Fuck off Aaron Glantz. It's not your job to decide if doctors are giving wounded soldiers too much medication. These soldiers deserve massive amounts of pain killers for life if they so choose.

lol we're probably the only group of people in the world that feel this way.

I don't really mean "lol". It's actually pretty depressing.
 
The first part is correct. But sorry, the second part needs amending. The government should NOT be involved in anything between a doctor and his or her patient, nor, as far as I'm concerned, does it have ANY right to.

Honestly, I feel that the doctor's role in the equation should be significantly reduced too. IMO doctors should be advisors, not the gate keepers, when it comes to opiates. Their responsibility should be to make sure that any decision the patient makes is an informed one, beyond that it should be up to the individual which medications they chose to take.

Too many doctors treat their patients the way researchers treat lab rats, or mechanics treat cars, acting on them as an object with no care for their own desires, opinions, or experiences, and enforcing this state of affairs through the power they're afforded by the medical system. The decision of what happens to an individual's body should always first and foremost belong to that individual.
 
Read my post above yours.

Hmmm. Another message I don't remember, I probably read your post, forgot what it stated and then wrote my own post thinking I was the most insightful person on earth. Shame I don't remember a thing about it, sorry.
 
Honestly, I feel that the doctor's role in the equation should be significantly reduced too. IMO doctors should be advisors, not the gate keepers, when it comes to opiates. Their responsibility should be to make sure that any decision the patient makes is an informed one, beyond that it should be up to the individual which medications they chose to take.

Too many doctors treat their patients the way researchers treat lab rats, or mechanics treat cars, acting on them as an object with no care for their own desires, opinions, or experiences, and enforcing this state of affairs through the power they're afforded by the medical system. The decision of what happens to an individual's body should always first and foremost belong to that individual.

QFT mate, could not have put it better. The part in bold I think says it all.
 
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