What the Media Keeps Getting Wrong About Opioids

September 29, 2015clientMedical ArticlesArticleHealthOpioids4

The media have brainwashed the US public into thinking that the “opioids” causing overdose fatalities are physician prescribed analgesics including hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, when in fact there is zero correlation or worse negative correlation between the number of prescriptions and overdose fatalities. The truth is that at least since 2011, fatalities are driven by illicit fentanyl (carfentanyl and acetyl-fentanyl and other similar analogs) and heroin and counterfeit pain pills sold as oxycodone but in reality fentanyl since it is cheap and easier to produce. Some speculate it is an attack on the United States by China, using fentanyl as a form of biological/chemical warfare.

This hyper-focus created by a renegade band of addiction psychiatrists has blinded the US public to the real danger of street drugs at minimum and an attack on the USA cannot be ruled out. 1.3% of deaths caused by prescription drugs is trivial compared to the 98.7% or 76 times more deaths caused by factors we aren’t making any progress on, so state politicians repeatedly declare success in the “opioid crisis” by pointing to their forced 35% reduction in opioid prescribing while sheriffs from the same states say almost all deaths are caused by illegal drugs.

The math doesn’t support the conclusions being drawn and demonstrates that the solutions of DEA surveillance of physicians is not only a waste of time, it is counter-productive because catching the 1 doctor who is supposedly “overprescribing” by merely being a statistical outlier and will be found innocent after wasting millions of tax dollars in false prosecutions, the DEA agents are missing billions of street drugs flowing across the Mexican border and even arriving in our shipping docks on both coasts. Manpower is wasted on chasing the wrong problem while drug cartels are enjoying a huge spike in demand and increased sales as desperate helpless pain victims are literally forced to use illicit street drugs, commit suicide, or be tortured to death.

What kind of a society have we become to treat our wounded veterans, disabled citizens, hospice and nursing home residents, and victims of genetic disease or severe auto-accidents worse than enemy combatants who per the UN cannot be tortured? I don’t’ blame the DEA agents, because they just follow orders. It is the leadership kicked off by Jeff “take an aspirin” Sessions that need to be held accountable for the harm inflicted on innocent law-abiding citizens while not protecting our nation against drug cartels and possibly attacks by hostile foreign governments. And PROP and the addiction zealots have caused unthinkable crimes against humanity with their rabid drive to topple drug manufacturers despite the fact that their products were classified as Schedule II substances from the first FDA approval to market so everyone knew darn well the risks from day one.

But now chronic pain patients are being treated with Nazi-like cruelty to taper off medicines that they have been stable on for decades, major orthopedic surgeries are being performed with only Tylenol for pain control, and now mothers are undergoing C section with little or no pain control. President Trump, the Supreme Court, and US Congress need to urgently correct this disgraceful act of cruelty and harm and start to restore proper pain management to patients who have legitimate severe health conditions and stop pressuring patients to choose between pain management and anxiety medicines if they have multiple severe health conditions. Its cruel, insane, and worthless because the net result has been more overdose fatalities, more powerful drug cartels, and permanent damage to the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship of trust upon which our entire health system rightly rests.

Source: National Pain Report