Nailed It
I just read something on this blog that, for me, sums up the problem with pain management in the U.S. The entry discusses a new time-release hydrocodone-based painkiller that some people oppose because "abusers" might crush and snort it:
[I]t is maybe not the coolest thing to render invisible folks who might need or benefit from the medication by focusing instead on people who would not even pretend to take it as prescribed. I get that potential for abuse is a real factor to consider for any medication, but “moderate to severe pain” is also a real thing in the world. Saying, “We just don’t need this on the market,” is at best ill-informed and at worst dishonest and cruel.
The plain fact is that the powers that be care more about theoretical drug abusers than they do about real people in pain. I've known this for years, but the blog (found via chronic_pain) made me see a new facet of it, somehow. And I say this as someone who hopes never to use hydrocodone or any of its relatives again.
[I]t is maybe not the coolest thing to render invisible folks who might need or benefit from the medication by focusing instead on people who would not even pretend to take it as prescribed. I get that potential for abuse is a real factor to consider for any medication, but “moderate to severe pain” is also a real thing in the world. Saying, “We just don’t need this on the market,” is at best ill-informed and at worst dishonest and cruel.
The plain fact is that the powers that be care more about theoretical drug abusers than they do about real people in pain. I've known this for years, but the blog (found via chronic_pain) made me see a new facet of it, somehow. And I say this as someone who hopes never to use hydrocodone or any of its relatives again.