American's Over 65 Don't Abuse Opioid Medications

What the government is doing to patients over the so called the Opioid Epidemic is wrong. Reducing the dose of pain medications for any long time opioid patient is wrong.

But reducing the dose of pain medications for older patients who have been long time pain patients doesn't even make sense.

Overdose statistics tell us older Americans don't abuse their opioid medications. Of the 42,000 suicides in 2016 only 1200 were people over 65.

When you add the fact most overdoses are from illegal drugs, a combination of drugs, or drugs and alcohol, that lowers this number significantly.

With suicide rates increasing at an alarming rate I hope they see how their knee jerk response to a complicated issue with far too many unintended consequences with the potential for death.

Now one of the Opioid Epidemic's unintended consequence has come home, we have a Suicide Epidemic. 

How high is the suicide rate REALLY? How many pain patients gave up the fight, saved up enough medications to overdose, and were written off as just another doper gone... You know NHI as we used to call it, No Humans Involved just a doper....

Opioid overdoses killed 1,354 Americans ages 65 and older in 2016, about 3 percent of the 42,000 opioid overdoses that year. https://www.apnews.com/72951225a96e4fd7ac702b969f3fc48c

If You're a patient of Dr Sutera email me at leapspeaker@gmail.com