It seems like it's shit everywhere. I'm lucky to have a good psychiatrist who was happy to prescribe my ADHD meds, and fight in my corner for the permit if necessary, due to the government saying no no no because I'm on bupe for opioid maintenance. And he has no problem prescribing me diazepam for anxiety because he believes/trusts me when I say that I'm shit scared of tolerance stopping them from stopping my anxiety, so only use them when really needed and never abuse them (it's the only abuseable drug I've ever been actually sensible with, but this is why, and it's true). And I switched from my GP to him for prescription writing, because of the type of nonsense this thread is about.
My bupe doc, who has a good line of communication with my psych, and knows that I'm honest about what's been prescribed by him, had to prescribe my 30 diazepam (which would normallyast me at least 4 months) as being picked up 2 at a time, each week, when I pick up my bupe. Because somehow accruing a stash of them over time leads to less abuse of them than giving them to me all at once even though it was usually weeks and weeks after they were all distributed to me, that I'd be getting low and needing a new script.
Yet, when an acute back pain incident took me to the ER, and I explained to them that I have no idea what sort of treatment they would suggest (I was guessing it would be ibuprofen and some very specific stretches), but I was just out of rehab, on opiate maintenance, and hence it would be great if they could take those factors into consideration, given the risk of relapse, when working out a treatment. What did they do? They minimised any relapse risks, or problems with taking both a blocking partial opioid agonist with pain meds, and prescribed not a weak or partial opiate like codeine or tramadol, not even a slow release strong opiate like OxyContin. No, they gave me what I have come to see is the closest we have in this country to heroin in a box of pills. Instant release Oxycodone. As it turned out, there were some very good reasons why this ended up being the only viable option . But .... The system here is soooo inconsistent.
And as for removing access to any opiates at all, for certain conditions or certain groups, or doctors reverting to "hmm, I dunno, maybe ibuprofen is too strong for this terminal cancer pain", there's a huge elephant in the room. The real reason for this sudden about face, isn't kids abusing Nurofen plus or panadeine OTC in a local park. It's because of a family of pharma company owners who decimated an entire nation with false advertising, lies about false studies and addiction potential, and the encouragement of "outside the box thinking" from its sales staff on how to sell more addictive pills to the public.
And this despicable behaviour is why we suddenly have this nonsense, difficult, and inhumane system. It's a textbook knee jerk reaction.
There must be dozens of documentaries and long form news reports about the evils of Purdue's OxyContin marketing.
But it's rare to find any more nuanced discussion about how Oxycodone and it's extended release formulations, while a very real addiction risk if not managed well (as opposed to Purdues lies), are also actually very useful, and lifestyle saving medications for some people. It's hard to reconcile that while Purdue we're operating one of the biggest and most devastating misinformation and outright false marketing and lying campaigns in history, that message they hid behind all their lies about it not being addictive, was that this drug could give some people their lives and lifestyles back. And in many cases this would be the absolute truth. Yes, they lied about addiction potential, in the most unforgivable ways. But there are uses for Oxycodone/contin, where it's a lifesaver.
It's a shame this truth has essentially been wiped from history because in this day and age nuance no longer exists. Purdue has been cancelled, cancelling all other opiates by proxy and anyone who benefited from ANY OTC or prescription opiates, can now look forward to living out the rest of their lives without adequate pain management. It's medical policy decision making by Twitter warring. This is what scientific decision making has become.....