First Do No Harm: The DEA targets Physicians who treat their patients pain.
Public Comments (15,444)
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them! -
Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 14th, 2018Someone from Dracut, MA writes:
Patients are not the cause of the opioid “crisis” in this country — people taking diverted medications are! Don’t punish chronic pain patients for this problem and don’t punish their doctors for treating them!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 13th, 2018KANE a. from ATLANTA, GA writes:
I was smoking since the age of 16. Last year I went for lung functioning tests! I am now 66. I was experiencing bad cough, large amounts of mucus, very little energy, and continued smoking. I visited my doctor and a chest x-ray was carried out, guess what, i was diagnosed of COPD. I took Spiriva 30/C/Dev 18 mcg every day for three months no changes,after using COPD herbal formula i purchased from BEST HEALTH HERBAL CENTRE for 5 weeks,my airflow was perfect,no more cough and chest tightness was over .All thanks to God for leading to BEST HEALTH HERBAL CENTRE. please visit their website for more information.. ww w. besthealthherbalcentre. comREPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 13th, 2018Denise G. from Woodland Hills, CA writes:
Start helping chronic pain patients again! This is a crime against humanity!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 13th, 2018Stacey T. from Joliet, IL writes:
The pendulum has swung too far the other way. Chronic pain patients like myself, who have been stable on oral opioids for years for excrutiating, constant pain, are being denied appropriate medical care, having the decisions of their physicians overridden by federal agencies enforcing voluntary guidelines as law. The CDC Guidelines for Chronic Pain are simply guidelines, suggestions meant to guide primary care physicians who treat chronic pain patients, as physicians who specialize in pain management are few and far between (only 4,000 in the country currently). The DEA has been enforcing these voluntary guidelines as law. This has caused many physicians to abandon chronic pain patients, stating they will not risk their licenses for our pain. Of the nine million chronic pain patients being treat successfully with opioids, only about 3-5% ever become addicted. We must always distinguish between dependence and addiction. Diabetes patients are dependent on insulin. Many chronic pain patients are dependent on opioids. Addiction is a disease of the brain causing a person to crave a substance regardless of negative consequences associated with acquiring that drug. This crisis is a patient crisis, as it has caused patients who have complied with the unprecedented monitoring of their diseases to suffer needlessly in agonizing pain. Some patients are forced to illicit drugs to quell pain so they can keep working to care for their families. Many patients have taken their own lives because they couldn't find a physician who isn't intimidated by the DEA and current hostile prescribing environment. Our community has suffered a doubling in suicide rates. We have stigmatized chronic pain and it's treatments, especially with opioids, a treatment that currently works best for the majority of patients, and it has to stop. The skyrocketing overdose deaths are caused by heroin and illicit fentanyl, not prescription medications. That is evident as prescriptions have substantially declined while overdose deaths remain unchanged. Please stop harming chronic pain patients by taking away our physicians and the pain relief that allows us some quality of life.REPORT COMMENTS
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Jan 13th, 2018Chris R. from Mansfield, TX signed.
Jan 13th, 2018Someone from Mingo Junction, OH writes:
I would love to be able to take anti-inflammatory drugs, would love to take an ibuprofen but I can't even take an aspirin, I break out in black and blue marks and was told by Cleveland Clinic to never take such medicine because it would slowly kill me. Heck even tried tylenol PM and aleve, my hands, face and feet swell terribly. Really wish these people who are teaching this to Doctors knew what they are preaching.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Mooreland, IN writes:
The way chronic pain patients are treated is unfair and not right. As a patient who developed a disabling condition after having spine surgery that I was never even made aware of this disease possibility before surgery from a money hungry surgeon who assured me in three months I would be like new. Well wrong and now doctors are scared to death to treat pain patients for a disease that affects the whole body with an opioid as they will loose there license what about my life. Do I not matter to anyone? Doctors need to be able to treat a patient as a whole patient not just bits and pieces.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Billy S. from Traskwood, AR signed.
Jan 13th, 2018Marlisa G. from Hot Springs Village, AR writes:
The DEA is targeting legitimate physicians in their misguided efforts in the Opioid Epidemic. But the CDC statistics prove that the overdose deaths are caused by Heroin and Illicit Fentanyl, not prescription opioids! The DEA targeted Dr Forrest Tennant, a world renowned expert in pain management, a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from pain management experts, who manages patients with rare and difficult to treat conditions, and who has successfully studied and researched Adhesive Arachnoiditis and developed a treatment protocol, something no other physician in the world has ever done. Dr Tennant has devoted his life to helping people who suffer intractable pain. He came out of retirement because he saw these patients were being neglected, forgotten and demonized. He followed standard practice in prescribing safe and effective pain medications to his patients and has done nothing illegal. The medical expert being used by the DEA to target him is a family medicine physician! How is a pain management physician, who has practiced since 1975, with more credentials than most experts in the field, being evaluated by a family medicine doctor with no training or experience treating intractable pain patients? It’s outrageous! The DEA chose to target this very well known, decent, compasssioate, upstanding physician to send a message to physicians everywhere, “you are not safe from the DEA”. These scare tactics are causing pain patients to lose access to prescription opioids, often the only effective treatment for them. Patients are suffering complications from undertreated and untreated pain, such as adrenal failure, heart attacks, strokes and sadly, many are committing suicide. This has to stop! The DEA needs to stop playing doctor with this vulnerable population and Lee ave legitimate physicians alone!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Sheri L. from Delhi, CA writes:
If the American people, who do not suffer day in; day out 24/7 SEVERE intractable pain, could remotely understand what we CPP go through on a constant daily basis, we wouldn't be in this predicament. It IS so life alternating the public has a hard time fathoming such suffering. And ALL they're getting is a skewed version that the media puts out. If they were educated about the other side of this so-called "opioid epidemic" from CPP themselves, it would change the world's view. The problem lies with addicts & alcohol | drugs. Not CPP opioid therapy. And if things aren't changed the addicts WILL find some other substance, CPP WILL suffer OR commit suicide OR be forced to commit a criminal action to stay out of pain. Nothing will get fixed. And this country will have BIGGER problems as a result. I implore you to please take this issue serious & turn things around before it gets any worse. Thank you~REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Centralia, WA writes:
Please, we have suffered now for years as our family also do with us. This would be an easier sacrifice if we knew that we were helping in some way,if there were finally an end to the torture. Did we save anyone's life? Unfortunately we have increased ODs & suicides bigly. While we who are still here become weaker & sicker simply from loss of mobility. Leaving us unable to shop for food, clean our home's or just wash our cut our hair. Lack of mobility leaves us with needing more medical assistance, from wheelchairs, rides to appointments & buying necessities, the list goes on.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Centralia, WA writes:
Please, we have suffered now for years as our family also do with us. This would be an easier sacrifice if we knew that we were helping in some way,if there were finally an end to the torture. Did we save anyone's life? Unfortunately we have increased ODs & suicides bigly. While we who are still here become weaker & sicker simply from loss of mobility. Leaving us unable to shop for food, clean our home's or just wash our cut our hair. Lack of mobility leaves us with needing more medical assistance, from wheelchairs, rides to appointments & buying necessities, the list goes on.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Shelbville, IN writes:
This inhumane treatment WILL affect EVERYONE in this country one day and now this madness has spread to other countries The elite really did a number on the people with this fake narrative. There is a HEROIN crisis NOT a prescription pain medication crisis. There is also a pain crisis in now thanks to knee-jerk reactions by our government who is listening to Kolodny. He has NO clue how to treat my disease and has NO business telling our Drs how much they can prescribe!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018dan b. from Santa Cruz, CA writes:
STOP THE PHONY WAR ON Legal RX pain meds. The CDC, PROP, and Andrew Kolodny manipulated the statistics about opioid deaths, failing to differentiate between Illegal opioid deaths and legal Rx opioid related deaths. The FDA TWICE told them that this methodology was wrong. Kolodny, who is not a pain doctor, wants opioid use for chronic pain banned despite its efficacy at helping people with chronic pain live functional productive lives. The DEA has been targeting legitimate pain doctors declaring a War on Rx Pain Meds and Pain Patients. THERE IS NO OPIOID CRISIS for Rx opioids Except AGAINST people in pain. Illegal fentanyl and heroin are causing the increasing death rates but DEA is useless combating this. Please let Doctors and patients make their own decisions and get the DEA and CDC out of the doctors officesREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018dan b. from Santa Cruz, CA writes:
STOP THE PHONY WAR ON Legal RX pain meds. The CDC, PROP, and Andrew Kolodny manipulated the statistics about opioid deaths, failing to differentiate between Illegal opioid deaths and legal Rx opioid related deaths. The FDA TWICE told them that this methodology was wrong. Kolodny, who is not a pain doctor, wants opioid use for chronic pain banned despite its efficacy at helping people with chronic pain live functional productive lives. The DEA has been targeting legitimate pain doctors declaring a War on Rx Pain Meds and Pain Patients. THERE IS NO OPIOID CRISIS for Rx opioids Except AGAINST people in pain. Illegal fentanyl and heroin are causing the increasing death rates but DEA is useless combating this. Please let Doctors and patients make their own decisions and get the DEA and CDC out of the doctors officesREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Julie N. from Sturtevant, WI signed.
Jan 13th, 2018Chris C. from Colorado Springs, CO writes:
This is a terrible era to be sick. The war on Chronic pain patients has to stop. The DEA has no right to interfere with patients and their physician. Please stop the attacks on the innocent chronic pain patients and their highly trained physicians.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Tacoma, WA writes:
Please stop this insane war against people in pain. Despite going to a pain specalist my meds have been cut by 90% soon to be cut more, This needs to stop before more people die, before I was permanently injured by a distracted driver going over the speedlimit,rear ending me when I was stopped resulting in a Collision speed of over 150 mph the police officer said. As a result I now live with permanent damage to my spine,Farther compounded by a botched spinal fusion. So instead of spending my golden years enjoying retirement I live with severe debilitating pain farther caused by this ridiculous crack down on doctors and People living in severe pain. Please STOP THIS MADNESS AND TORTUREREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Tacoma, WA writes:
Please stop this insane war against people in pain. Despite going to a pain specalist my meds have been cut by 90% soon to be cut more, This needs to stop before more people die, before I was permanently injured by a distracted driver going over the speedlimit,rear ending me when I was stopped resulting in a Collision speed of over 150 mph the police officer said. As a result I now live with permanent damage to my spine,Farther compounded by a botched spinal fusion. So instead of spending my golden years enjoying retirement I live with severe debilitating pain farther caused by this ridiculous crack down on doctors and People living in severe pain. Please STOP THIS MADNESS AND TORTUREREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Isabel E. from Bridgeport, CT writes:
STOP THE TORTURE OF PAIN PATIENTS!!! RESTORE OUR BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS!! WE ARE PAIN PATIENTS NOT ADDICTS!!!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018kandace f. from Montville, OH writes:
I'm so exhausted from being in pain, I'm losing my will to keep fighting.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Lisle, IL writes:
My bff has chronic pain,hardware from car accident and has worked his*****off for 25 years to make this country great and keep people able to use indoor plumbing.hes got a great big heart and sacraficeses for his kids and everyone who crosses his path.he told me last year that his dr cutoff his pain meds with no reason or warning.he never did anything wrong.he used to be able to hang out at my house somtimes or go the grocery store once in a while.he never looked high or ever had any pass outs.he never abused his meds or sold them as he makes enough money to barely support himself but he learned to do without luxuries.hes always beennhappy.ever since then,ive watched a great person i envy for strength and caring,turn to a mass of dispair and pain.he never comes by.he rarely calls or goes out unless its to his dr.he talks of killing himself cuz his pain is do bad now most of the day.hes confined to his room,n doesnt even open the shades.i can tell he wants to be dead.he will prpbably,in my opinion,kill himself before the year is over.he says he just hurts now for no reason.he id in pain,and its causing anxiety and deep depression.i dont blame him.i can try to talk to him but hes smart,and already has a plan.how do you think his dr came to cut him off after 7 years with the same dr? Hes never used drugs and doesnt drink.he never drove n texted.for gods sake,why did he lose the little quality of life he had? I found rhru internet searches and talking uo others w pain,that the cdc and dea may have threatened his dr with jail or worse if he didnt cutoff pain patients.i understand the cdc guidelines were used as rules and hysteria of misundrestood drugs like heroin and meth cdused the prob.but noone is letting anyone w pain just be treated .his dr treated him and his dr did nothing wrong.if the dea(i believe it) threatened drs,the dea broke the law.the dea is not authority over drs,especially when treating people who are on disability.no government person or body should be telling doctors how to treat patients.my dr knows me best.he is the only one that should make decisions on my hwdlth.i hope a class sction lawsuit agsinst the dea and cdc is coming in the future.the federal government is guilty of murder,cuz i know pain patients have commiyted suicide too.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Suzanne W. from Mertztown, PA writes:
Please let doctors treat patients again. This hysteria is hurting real people whose only crime was to get sick or injured. They are essentially being denied pain medication not for anything they did wrong but due to the actions of others. These patients have been on stable doses prescribed by there doctors without any problems. This is leaving chronic pain patients living in the hell of unrelenting and never ending pain. Please stop scapegoating patients and stop the witch hunt against doctors who are only living up to the oath they took.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Katharine W. from Garfield, AR writes:
Please stop failing to treat one group of patients due to a desire to protect another. Do no harm! I have no arrests, convictions or addictions. I have a chronic/incurable disease. Why reduce my quality of life?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Dee E. from Burke, VA writes:
Our doctors should be the only ones treating us. People in pain are dying because the doctors are being targeted, raided losing everything. People are so afraid they are putting off surgeries. How will this work, no doctors, no patients, collapse?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Kelli P. from Canton, MA writes:
Ever been in excruciating pain? (Need help imagining...ever given childbirth or kneed in the balls?) Now imagine that 24/7 week after week, year after year! Imagine no relief from that pain. There is only so much one can handle. People are committing suicide, including those you asked to fight for this country, because they can only handle so much. GET OUT of my doctor’s office!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Kelli P. from Canton, MA writes:
Ever been in excruciating pain? (Need help imagining...ever given childbirth or kneed in the balls?) Now imagine that 24/7 week after week, year after year! Imagine no relief from that pain. There is only so much one can handle. People are committing suicide, including those you asked to fight for this country, because they can only handle so much. GET OUT of my doctor’s office!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Kelli H. from Dayton, OH signed.
Jan 13th, 2018Elmer T. from Buffalo, NY writes:
This is an echo of the millions of us treated similarly.after being stable with a semi quality of life,my meds were denied in june of 2017 without warning or reason.The guidelines are clearly stated as not rules or laws.The current hysteria about interchangedble words opioid and pain meds has caused pain patients like us to seriously consider suicide(mine is planned for my birthday this year).The heroin and illegal fentnyl flowing into the country has caused so many more deaths yet the only people punished are good doctors and pain victims.I have been fuffering severe chronic pain in spine neck shoulders hips knees,for 14 years.Ive had no issues of arrest abuse or diversion,and always talked frankly with my primary doctor.He assures me as i know,im not an addict.The fact that the money to treat addiction is beyond comprehension and treating me with inexpensive medications that are supremely effective .Millions are suffering,and noone seems to ask any of us.I dont need a pain managment,my pcp was skilled and a 30yr veteral md.pain mgt drs are less than 10% trained,most anestesiologists.return my pain management responsibilities to my highly skilled md as well as my right to be treated as he sees fit.noone belongs in your drs office telling them how to treat you.ive seen the same drs over 7 years and have 100%trust but now i only think how is he being bullied?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Sedona, AZ writes:
Chronic pain patients deserve medication that helps them function in life, have quality of life as much as possible. They should not be in the same group as drug addicts. Since they are suicide is the only option for some pain patients. Is this what you want?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Nicole B. from Spring Hill, FL writes:
Doctors should be able to practice medicine without the government getting involved. They go to school for years to learn how to practice medicine. Not DEA agents. This is getting so far out of hand and chronic pain patients are suffering.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 13th, 2018Someone from Chapel Hill, NC writes:
Doctor patient relationship has been damaged by these draconian oversights. Docs are highly trained, let them do their job without fear of jail/raids/harassment just for practicing medicine!!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJan 12th, 2018Judith R. from Istachatta, FL writes:
I live in hell everyday from serious injuries I received when I was hit by an intoxicated driver in 2001. I can't even get minimal pain relief now. I've had epidurals and trigger point injections. Since my injuries resulted in spinal stenosis the shots do no good. I get treated like garbage bc of what the federal government has done to us.REPORT COMMENTS
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