The War on Drugs is a Failure

 Every day we see multiple articles where $2,000,000 in drugs are seized. They estimate we catch 3% of illegal drugs. That means for every $2,000,000 seized almost $200,000,000 get through...

What's the War on Drugs Really About?

 I saw something on TV about drugs and it pissed me off. 

I've been a speaker for the LEAP the Law Enforcement Action Partnership for over 25 years. I believe the drug war is an abject failure and has been for years. 

We have 24,000 deaths from cocaine, 30,000 from meth, 79,000 from opioids like fentanyl, that's 133,000 deaths each year from illegal drugs...

BUT Alcohol kills almost 200,000 people, tobacco kills 500,000, so that's 700,000 people a year from legal drugs. So what's the drug war really about? Money, Power, and Politics... 

America has 5% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds prisoners. Land of the free?? 

Each year DEA cuts the production of opioid pain medications forcing chronic pain patients to choose the street or death. 

This is just my opinion but with marijuana legalization DEA is forced to look for other bad guys. So they turn legitimate pain patients and physicians who treat them into criminals to justify the agency existence. 

Catch 22 No Help for Pain Patients - Emergency Room says You're an Addict - Community Health Services says You're a Pain Patient

Catch 22 No Help for Pain Patients - Emergency Room says You're an Addict - Community Health Services says You're a Pain Patient 

When I went to Community Health Services AKA the Methadone Clinic in Kingman for help getting off my opioid pain medication. 

I told them I had tapered down from 450mgs of Morphine a day to 30 mgs but was having withdrawal symptoms after 12 hours. I had gone through several days of withdrawals before giving up and taking my Morphine. 

They said it was Catch 22, federal law says they can't help because I told them I was a pain patient, and they can't treat pain patients. 

That didn't even make sense to me, if I was asking for pain management I could understand, but I wanted help getting off my pain medications. 

They told me to go to the emergency room, they would help me there, but I know that's BS.

 If a pain-patient goes to the emergency room for help, you're told they can't help because you're addicted, and they can't treat addicts.  If a pain-patient goes to a Methadone clinic like Community Health Services and mention the word pain, they tell you they can't help because you're a pain patient and they can't treat pain.

WOW!!!

Are the simultaneous use of stimulants and opioids a superior combination for pain relief? History and science say yes....

History and science are pretty clear: the simultaneous use of stimulants and opioids have, for over a century, been reported to be a superior combination for pain relief. So what's up?

When I tell pain management physicians that ADD medications potentiate opioids, most just say ya they know, but they don't prescribe ADD medications.

It’s a puzzling situation. History and science are pretty clear: the simultaneous use of stimulants and opioids have, for over a century, been reported to be a superior combination for pain relief.¹ So, based on history, why isn’t every patient who’s taking opioids also taking a stimulant? 

For example, in 1977 the renowned analgesic researcher, William Forest, led a national cooperative study which clearly showed that a dose of dextroamphetamine with morphine increased morphine’s pain-relieving potency one and a half to two times.² Forest and colleagues posited that the great therapeutic benefit of the combination of dextroamphetamine and morphine wasn’t widely used because, “We suspect that the combination has not been accepted clinically at least, in part, because physicians do not want to subject their patients to the risk of abuse if these drugs (dextroamphetamine and morphine) are used.”

Status Report on Role of Stimulants in Chronic Pain Management

Stimulant administration in chronic pain patients may increase analgesia, improve mental and physical functions, and treat the comorbidities of fatigue, depression, daytime sedation, obesity, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Regardless of terminology, stimulant or catecholaminergic compounds have an expanding role in pain management for a number of reasons. They have been shown to have innate analgesic properties, in addition to potentiating opioids, enhancing some mental and physiologic functions, and treating some common comorbidities of chronic pain, including fatigue, depression, daytime sedation, obesity, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Why Intractable Pain Treatment Requires a Stimulant

Illicit Stimulant Use Common for Chronic Pain Management in Women With Neuropathic Pain

Roughly 35% of COPING participants reported illicit stimulant use in the past year; 37% of them used cocaine or crack cocaine, 31% had used methamphetamine (or speed), and 31% used both cocaine or crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Eight participants reported using prescription stimulants not prescribed to them, in addition to nonprescription stimulants during the study period.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny says young people should buy heroin on the street rather than pills...

 KILLERS AND PAIN: Painkiller law sends users to heroin

I really don't what to say except Dr. Andrew Kolodny the chief medical officer of Phoenix House is a complete IDIOT!

In this article Kolodny said, "Are we better off with that young opioid-addicted person using oxycodone than buying heroin on the street?" said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer of Phoenix House, which operates treatment programs in 11 states. "I would say we're better off them buying heroin on the street." 

WOW a physician saying he would rather see people using heroin than getting medications from their physician

I spent 15 years working undercover narcotics and I can tell you addicted people are professional drug abusers. When it comes to pills they know what amount it takes to get high without overdosing, with heroin it's a crap shoot if they live or die.

Just My Conspiracy Theory

The CDC Pain Guidelines for Primary Care Physicians caused great injury and pain for thousands of patients. The timing of the Opioid Epidemic is suspicious to me. Everything about our nations War on Drugs is about money, always follow the money....

We knew cutting the supply of pain medications to legitimate patients would drive patients to illegal street drugs. We knew street drugs with unknown substances would cause more overdoses.

Anytime we talk about DEA keep in mind that before the "opioid epidemic" 70% of DEA business was marijuana and marijuana is becoming legal.

DEA is a huge agency with 23 domestic field divisions with 222 field offices and 92 foreign offices in 70 countries. DEA has a budget exceeding $3 billion, and employs 10,169 people, including 4,924 Special Agents and 800 Intelligence Analysts.

I think it’s funny how the “opioid epidemic” came along just as DEA was losing the vast majority of their business. We knew that pushing legitimate patients to the streets would increases the need for cartels to smuggle more heroin and fentanyl into the US.

Because of the enormous profits in the drug trade more people were dragged into selling the cartels products. More smugglers, more drug dealers, and more "criminals" for DEA to arrest. The cartels drugs with unknown substances cause more overdoses that prove the need for more money for more enforcement and the war on drugs continues.

We know a small percentage of people will always abuse drugs or alcohol for emotional reasons. But people will continue to become injured or suffer painful disease and there will always be an increasing number of people who suffer chronic intractable pain looking for pain relief creating customers for pain management physicians or cartels. It's our choice because we know prohibition doesn't work.

We keep Telling Them Prohibition Doesn't Work .. Now Meth is Back Because of ADD Meds

 It's simple prohibition doesn't work. 

The CDC Pain Guidelines for Family Practice physicians set off the opioid crisis. Causing pain patients to be cut off and left to suffer or turn to the street. 

Mexican cartels picked up the slack and now we have Fentanyl that's 50-100 times more potent than Morphine.

Many of these patients like the pain patients affected by the opioid crisis and cut off their medications will turn to the street. Sadly there is no quality control and who knows what they get when buying from drug dealers rather than their pharmacy.  

Now physicians are cutting patients off or refusing to prescribe ADD medications for patients who have done well on their medications for many years.

Again Mexican cartels will pick up the slack making tons of meth in days. Where I live they stopped a car with 90 Pounds of Meth, it was worth 3.9 million dollars. Another recent traffic stop netted 2200 pounds of meth in Phoenix. Big dent in the cartels business, right?

That 3.9 million works out to $43,333 a pound. One Mexican cartel meth lab produces 7 Tons Every 3 Days thats 14,000 pounds of meth every 3 days. 

That works out to $606,662,000 every 3 days. Multiply that by the number of meth labs the cartels have and you're talking billions of dollars. Only 10 labs would produce 6 billion dollars every 3 days, rounding it off it still works out to 600,000,000,000 that's six hundred billion dollars a year.... 

Now let's add all the profits from Fentanyl, Heroin, Cocaine, and Marijuana and see why we're loosing the war on drugs... 

Dr Feelgood Dealer or Healer a documentary on Dr Hurwitz

In 1996 I was one of Dr William Hurwitz patients when DEA went after him. Under scrutiny he gave DEA all his patients names.

Why didn't DEA just go after the bad patients and make examples of those who are selling their medications. 

It's not rocket science to stop by a pain patients home and ask to count their pills. No pills and high levels showing abuse, two choices. One, go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect anything. Two, get help today with Dr Hurwitz help then gone....

we had the same fight we have today. 

WARNING Pain Patients Die in this Documentary 

PLEASE watch Dr Feelgood Dealer or Healer a documentary on the best pain doc I ever had. It's on Hulu and I'm sure other places. LINK to Dr Feelgood

Also learn the history of the fight for pain relief, too many innocents die. It's important so we don't make the same mistakes.

Dr William Hurwitz YOU are MY Hero... Jay Fleming

This is Dr Hurwitz's story...

I testified before the House Health Committee in support of a harm reduction bill. HB 2608

On January 6th I testified before the Arizona House Health Committee in support of harm reduction bill. HB 2608. This bill will help protect our first responders from needle sticks and the fear of HIV and Hepatitis-C.

First responders risk their lives everyday and this bill will help make one of the dangers they face everyday, a little less dangerous.

This bill is about protecting everyone from HIV and Hepatitis-C, especially our first responders

Why Did Arizona Repeal The Guidelines for the Use of Controlled Substances in 2014

Why Did Arizona Repeal their Pain Guidelines?

In 1996 I was fighting for my right to pain relief. an article was published in the Kingman Miner about my fight for pain meds. In 1997 Arizona Medical Board published their first guidelines for treating chronic pain.

Substantive Policy Statement or SPS #7 was published in November 1997 as guidelines for physicians on how to treat chronic pain with opioids without getting in trouble. SPS #7 was revised in May 1999, and then revised again in June 2003.

Then in December 2014 for some reason it was repealed. All guidance for physicians on how not to get in trouble with the Arizona Medical Board or DEA for treating patients with opioid medications was gone...

Why Did Arizona Repeal their Pain Guidelines?

Regulations and Laws

Physicians Need Guidance on how to treat pain without fear

Substantive Policy Statement #7 that was published in November 1997 revised in May 1999, and June 2003. Then in December 2014 for some reason the Arizona Medical Board repealed SPS #7 removing all guidance for physicians on the treatment of chronic pain with controlled substances.

AZ Medical Board Substantive Policy Statement #7

Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Chronic Pain

This substantive policy statement is advisory only. A substantive policy statement does not include internal procedural documents that only affect the internal procedures of the agency and does not impose additional requirements or penalties on regulated parties or include confidential information or rules made in accordance with the Arizona administrative procedure act. If you believe that this substantive policy statement does impose additional requirements or penalties on regulated parties you may petition the agency under Arizona Revised Statutes section 41-1033 for a review of the statement.

ARIZONA MEDICAL BOARD

9545 East Doubletree Ranch Road, Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES FOR THE
TREATMENT OF CHRONIC PAIN (SPS 7)


The Arizona Medical Board (“Board”) strongly urges physicians to view effective pain management as a high priority in all patients, including children and the elderly. Pain should be assessed and treated promptly, effectively and for as long as pain persists. The medical management of pain should be based on up-to-date knowledge about pain, pain assessment and pain treatment. Pain treatment may involve the use of several drug and nondrug treatment modalities, often in combination. For some types of pain the use of drugs is emphasized and should be pursued vigorously; for other types, the use of drugs is better de-emphasized in favor of other therapeutic modalities. Physicians should have sufficient knowledge or consultation to make such judgments for their patients.

Drugs, in particular the opioid analgesics, are considered the cornerstone of treatment for pain associated with trauma, surgery, medical procedure and cancer. Physicians are referred to the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Clinical Practice Guidelines as a sound yet flexible approach to the management of these types of pain.

The prescribing of opioid analgesics for other patients with intractable non-cancer pain also may be beneficial, especially when efforts to remove the cause of pain or to treat it with other modalities have been unsuccessful. For the purposes of these guidelines, intractable pain is defined as:

A pain state in which the cause of the pain cannot be removed or otherwise treated and which in the generally accepted course of medical practice no relief or cure of the cause of the pain is possible or none has been found after reasonable efforts including, but not limited to, evaluation by the attending physician and surgeon and one or more physicians and surgeons specializing in the treatment of the area, system or organs of the body perceived as the source of the pain.

Therefore, these guidelines are an attempt to communicate to physicians who prescribe opioids for intractable pain not to fear disciplinary action from this Board for prescribing or administering controlled substances in the course of treatment of a person for intractable pain. Also, physicians should use sound clinical judgment, and care for their patients according to the following principles of responsible professional practice.

I. STATUTORY ABILITY TO DEVELOP GUIDELINES
Pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes § 32-1403(A)(3), the Board may develop and recommend standards governing the profession in Arizona.
II. GUIDELINES FOR PATIENT CARE WHEN PRESCRIBING CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES FOR CHRONIC PAIN
A) Pain Assessment
Pain assessment should occur during initial evaluation, after each new report of pain, at appropriate intervals after each pharmacological intervention, and at regular intervals during treatment. Unless a patient is terminally ill and death is imminent (in which case the diagnosis is usually evident and diagnostic evaluations may be of little value and discomforting to the patient), the evaluation should include:
1. Medical history, including the presence of a recognized medical indication for the use of a controlled substance, the intensity and character of pain, and questions regarding substance abuse;
2. Corroboration of medical history by reviewing patient’s medical records and/or speaking with patient’s former physicians. Patients frequently seek out a new prescribing physician after their previous prescribing physician has terminated them for non-compliance, substance abuse, and/or drug diversion;
3. Psycho-social assessment, which may include but is not limited to:

a. The patient's understanding of the medical diagnosis, expectations about pain relief and pain management methods, concerns regarding the use of controlled substances, and coping mechanisms for pain;
b. Changes in mood which have occurred secondary to pain (i.e., anxiety, depression); and
c. The meaning of pain to the patient and his/her family.
4. Physical examination, including a neurologic evaluation and examination of the site of pain.
5. Urine drug screen, testing for commonly abused street drugs as well as prescription pain drugs that are known abused or diverted drugs. Such screening will help identify drug abusers and drug diverters.
B) Treatment Plan
A treatment plan should be developed for the management of chronic pain and state objectives by which therapeutic success can be evaluated, including:
1. Pain relief;

2. Improved physical functioning;

3. Proposed diagnostic evaluations (i.e., blood tests, radiologic, psychological and social studies such as CAT and bone scans, MRI and neurophysiologic examinations such as electromyography); and

4. Analysis of inclusion and exclusion criteria for opioid management: Inclusion criteria includes a clear diagnosis consistent with symptoms, all reasonable alternative therapies have been explored; the patient is reliable and communicates well, there has been informed consent or a treatment agreement signed; Potential exclusion criteria include a history of chemical dependency, major psychiatric disorder, chaotic social situation, or a planned pregnancy.
C) Informed Consent
The physician should advise the patient, guardian, or designated surrogate of the risks and benefits of the use of controlled substances. The patient should be counseled on the importance of regular visits, the impact of recreational drug use, the number of physicians and pharmacies used for prescriptions, taking medications as prescribed, etc.
The physician and the patient should enter into a pain treatment contract that specifically states the patient’s required compliance with the treatment plan and what the consequences of non-compliance, misuse and abuse will be. It is particularly important that patients understand that they will be discontinued from the prescribed controlled substances, in a safe manner, should it be revealed that they are abusing or diverting drugs.
D) Ongoing Assessment
The assessment and treatment of chronic pain mandates continuing evaluation, and if necessary, modification and/or discontinuation of opioid therapy. If clinical improvement does not occur, the physician should consider the appropriateness of continued opioid therapy, and consider a trial of alternative pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic modalities.
E) Consultation
The physician should refer the patient as necessary for additional evaluation to achieve treatment objectives. Physicians should recognize patients requiring individual attention, in particular, patients whose living situations pose a risk for misuse or diversion of controlled substances. In addition, the prescription of controlled substances to patients with a history of substance abuse requires extra care, monitoring, and documentation, and may also require consultation with an addiction medicine specialist.
F) Documentation
The physician must maintain adequate, accurate and timely records regarding items A-E from above. "Adequate Records," pursuant to A.R.S. º32-1401(2), "means legible records containing, at a minimum, sufficient information to identify the patient, support the diagnosis, justify the treatment, adequately document the results, indicate advice and cautionary warnings provided to the patient, and provide sufficient information for another practitioner to assume continuity of the patient's care at any point in the treatment." Specific to chronic pain patients, the documentation should include:
1. The medical history and physical examination;
2. Related evaluations and consultations, treatment plan and objectives;
3. Evidence of discussion regarding informed consent;
4. Prescribed medications and treatments;
5. Periodic reviews of treatments and patient response; and
6. Any physician-patient agreements or contracts.
G. Counting and Destroying Medication
The physician may desire to see and count a patient’s medication to determine if the patient is taking the medication as prescribed. The patient should display and count the medication in front of the physician. Under no circumstance should the physician touch a patient’s controlled substances. If the medication must be destroyed, the patient should flush the medication down the toilet in the physician’s presence. The physician should document this fact in the patient’s chart.
H. Post-Dated Prescriptions
Post-dated prescriptions are illegal in the State of Arizona. Therefore, physicians may not issue post-dated prescriptions.
I. Referral of Patients with Active Substance Abuse Problems
Patients discovered to have an active substance abuse problem should be referred to either a detoxification and rehabilitation program or to an appropriate maintenance program for addicts.
III. COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND REGULATIONS
A. Prescribing Controlled Substances
To prescribe controlled substances, physicians must comply with all applicable laws, including the following:
1. Possess a valid current license to practice medicine in the State of Arizona; and
2. Possess a valid and current controlled substances Drug Enforcement Administration registration for the schedules being prescribed.
B. Dispensing Controlled Substances
To dispense controlled substances, physicians must comply with all applicable laws, including the following:
1. Possess a valid current license to practice medicine in the State of Arizona;
2. Possess a valid and current controlled substances Drug Enforcement Administration registration for the schedules being prescribed;
3. Comply with Arizona Revised Statutes § 32-1491, et seq. and A.A.C. R4-16-201 through R4-16-205; and
4. Comply with 22 CFR 1306.07(a) if controlled substances are dispensed for detoxification.

FDA Warns of 'Serious' Respiratory Problems With Gabapentin

Gabapentin a drug given many pain patients that is known for making patients aggressive is now causing respiratory problems according to this Medscape article FDA Warns of 'Serious' Respiratory Problems With Gabapentin

If you take Gabapentin or know someone who does, please share this with them.

Cocaine and Meth Related Overdoses on the Rise.... Just My Opinion

Just My Opinion...

I've been speaking on drug policy for 16 years or so and I keep telling people that overdoses are caused by blackmarket drugs, but nobody gets it.

According to the article in The Drug War Chronicle the annual number of drug overdose deaths is still more than 68,000. The majority of these are from various drug mixtures that include Fentanyl.

While working undercover in the 70's and 80's I saw quite a few people shoot up. If they had a know product whether pill or powder, they knew how much to use. 

The problem came when a new batch or product came to town. If it was heroin was it 30% or did someone really score and is it 90%? If you have ever been around people who abuse drugs they think if one pill is good then 2 or 3 must be better. 

Some of these guys didn't even know what they were taking. Billy told Donny he had some pills he was going to sell. Donny aked to see them, so Billy pulled out a few. Before Billy could say they were his sisters birth control pills he was going to sell to a high school kid, Donny ate 5 of them.... 
Like I said, some of these guys didn't even know what they were taking. 

My point is many people who abuse drugs don't make good decisions. When testing the heroin someone would usually take the normal amount they use because they want to get high. If the tester lives or dies, the others have a starting point.

Eleven states and Washington, DC, have now legalized marijuana for recreational use for adults over 21, and 33 states have legalized medical marijuana.

People who sell black market marijuana usually don't mess with selling other types of drugs. But with marijuana becoming legal and DEA's new opioid epidemic forcing patient to the street as they're doses are cut or stopped all together black market sellers have switched to heroin or Fentanyl containing products.

The black market sellers of heroin usually don't have a problem with being a poly-drug dealer, so adding cocaine or meth to heroin isn't a big deal for them.

I told everyone several months back that Cocaine was going to be the next big Drug Epidemic I don't see the cartels adding meth but it makes good business sense.

Powered drug overdoses will level off or increase over the next two years and then slow, it will be education and not enforcement that lowers the overdose level. 

Who is Doctor Timothy Munzing? Why Does DEA Pay Him Over $300,000 a year?

Every pain patient needs to know this guys name and share it with others. Point out how much he make sending good doctors to prison using fake news and false testimony... Jay

This is part of an article from Doctors of Courage read the rest here The Pain News Network Shields Doctor Forest Tennant Calling DEA’s Expert Dr. Timothy Munzing Unaware and Ignorant

Who is Doctor Timothy Munzing? Dr. Munzing is a self-proclaimed expert witness for the DEA and other government agencies, like the Medical Board of California. Expert witnesses for the DEA and the Medical Boards are paid for their services and their 
testimony is based on investigative narratives. There are a lot of good expert witnesses who are honest and objective about how they review cases against doctors, but there are just a many crooked so-called expert witness doctors who would knowingly testify to harm other doctors and people in general, using false testimony. In this case, I believe Dr. Timothy Munzing’s evaluation and findings are based on what the DEA wants him to find and say. The Pain News Network hits the donkey right on the tail; Dr. Munzing is not only unfamiliar with Dr. Tennant’s practice, but he is not an honest expert witness because he tends to follow narratives given to him by the prosecution, instead of following what he know is ethical and correct. Experts like Dr. Munzing are responsible for jailing thousands of U.S. doctors, calling them drug dealers and associating their practices with the black market, a false, “fake news” narrative that has been widely debunked and exposed.

Doctor Michael Schatman, a research specialist in pain management, exposed a national scheme by the Drug Distributors who control the CDC, DEA, Medical Boards, and Congressional Members like Tom Morino; this is a scheme to criminalize medicine and call doctors drug dealers and their patients addicts. This scheme involved creating a “Fake” opioid prescription pill crisis and thousands of overdose deaths blamed on doctors when the fact shows that 90 percent of overdose deaths in the United States are caused by illegal drugs pouring into this country from China and other countries. The DEA has been criticized from its inability to stop illegal drugs for hitting the streets in this country and under the guidance and control of the Drug Distributors, the DEA has launched its war against U.S. Trained doctors for treating legitimate people with valid pain problems.

Kingman Regional Medical Center ER Did Great This Time..

If you read my blog you know I haven't had very good luck at the Kingman Regional Medical Center ER. But when my wife went there the other day they were great. 

She told them she was tired of being treated like a drug addict or drug seeker because she takes pain medications. They said they were sorry for how she had been treated and asked her if she would give their team a chance. 

She did, and she said everybody from the doctors to the nurses and tech people did a great job and treated her with respect.They treated her pain, did the testing to find a diagnosis, and got her on some medications to take care of the problem.

I hope the Kingman Regional Medical Center Emergency Department is changing for the better in the way they treat pain patients. 

Thank you for treating my wife with respect...

🆘 URGENT, PLEASE READ TAKE ACTION Contact Your Representativess 🆘

🆘 URGENT, PLEASE READ EVERY WORD🆘

The AMA has finally passed resolutions in an attempt to fix the damage done to patients by the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids... Please Read and Share

AMA RESOLUTIONS: 

1. RESOLVED that our AMA affirms that some patients with acute or chronic pain can benefit from taking opioids at greater dosages than recommended by the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for chronic pain and that such care may be medically necessary and appropriate. 

2. RESOLVED that AMA advocate against the misapplication of the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids by pharmacists, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, legislatures, and governmental and private regulatory bodies in ways that prevent or limit access to opioid analgesia

3. RESOLVED that our AMA advocate that no entity should use MME (morphine milligram equivalents) thresholds as anything more than guidance, and physicians should not be subject to professional discipline, loss of board certification, loss of clinical privileges, criminal prosecution, civil liability, or other penalties or practice limitations solely for prescribing opioids at a quantitative level above the MME thresholds found in the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids.

At its interim meeting in Maryland last week, the AMA House of Delegates adopted a series of resolutions that recognize the mistreatment of pain patients and call for restraint in implementing the CDC guideline – particularly as it applies to the agency’s maximum recommended dose of 90mg MME (morphine milligram equivalent units).

This CAN be AMAZING & life changing news, IF it gets into the hands of those who are limiting our doctor’s ability to prescribe opioid pain medication!

These are the FULLY RESOLVED AMA resolutions contained in their report.  Resolution 235 is regarding the Misuse of the 2016 CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids! 

CLICK HERE FOR QUICK OVERVIEW OF AMA RESOLUTIONS

Below is the full version of the AMA report.  Please see Resolution #235 on pages 24-25.

Full Version of (AMA) American Medical Association's Preliminary Report of Actions taken by the House of Delegates (Pages of Interest 24 and 25) 

**** Attention ALL CPP'S ****

Urgent IMMEDIATE Action Needed NOW!

In order to expedite & use this information to our advantage, we need YOU to take the following steps:

We need every single pain patient and advocate to CALL their state and federal representatives including   Governors Office, State Medical Board, State Narcotics Board, and State Attorney Generals and ask them for an ACTIVE email address (or their health staffers email) AND tell them to expect an extremely important resolution by the AMA about the CDC Guidelines. 

Once you have a list of all the email addresses, please copy & paste the FORM LETTER below to email each of them.  A few days after sending the emails, please call back to follow up and confirm that the email was received and forwarded to the correct person or department. 

CLICK HERE to access the FORM LETTER to send this URGENT information to your State and Federal Representatives 

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO FIND & CONTACT YOUR STATE AND FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES & GOVERNMENT AGENCIES  IS LISTED BELOW FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE:

———————————————————

Here is a link to locate your Federal Representatives, Senators & Governors with phone numbers and their health staffers email addresses. 

Link to find contact info for you State Medical Boards

Link to Contact Your State Legislators

Link to find your State Attorney General contact information

Link to find your State Controlled Substance/Narcotics Board

———————————————————

There are also a couple of other resolutions that refer to prescribing, mostly in regards to Opioid Use Disorder (Methadone specifically) it would benefit everyone to be educated.

The State of Rhode Island is addressing the damage done by the CDC Pain Treatment Guidelines PLEASE SHARE

The State of Rhode Island is addressing 

the damage done by the CDC Pain Treatment Guidelines 

PLEASE SHARE

State of Rhode Island

6/20/2019

Rep. Amore bill that excludes chronic intractable pain from medication prescribing guidelines passed by House

STATE HOUSE – Rep. Gregg Amore’s (D-Dist. 65, East Providence) legislation (2019-H 5434A) that would exclude chronic intractable pain from the definition of “acute pain management” for the purposes of prescribing opioid medication was passed by the House of Representatives.

“We want to make sure that our public policy in regard to addressing the opioid crisis does not have the unintended consequence of hurting patients who are trying to manage chronic pain.  These patients are not addicts, they are suffering with pain associated with cancer, palliative care, and in many cases, chronic intractable pain.  We need to let physicians determine how best to manage their patients’ pain,” said Representative Amore.

Chronic intractable pain is defined as pain that is excruciating, constant, incurable, and of such severity that it dominates virtually every conscious moment.  It also produces mental and physical debilitation and may produce a desire to commit suicide for the sole purpose of stopping the pain.

The bill calls for new guidelines for the treatment of chronic intractable pain be based upon the consideration of the individualized needs of patients suffering from chronic intractable pain.  The legislation acknowledges that every patient and their needs is different, especially those suffering from chronic pain.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

For more information, contact:

Andrew Caruolo, Publicist

State House Room 20

Providence, RI 02903

(401)222-6124

http://www.rilegislature.gov/pressrelease/_layouts/RIL.PressRelease.ListStructure/Forms/DisplayForm.aspx?List=c8baae31-3c10-431c-8dcd-9dbbe21ce3e9&ID=370434&fbclid=IwAR3F-013Z8RlL7aYQMCHIrJM2TfgVRLuAjE13osplZBHJ3e5UPbHXHI-vG4

Do No Harm... Physicians Just Don't Get It

Family says Pleasant Grove man committed suicide after going off pain meds too quickly

NEWS

Utah lobbyist works with lawmakers to stop "force-tapering"

If someone abuses opioids and overdose it sad.

If someone ends their life for lack of pain control, that's a tragedy