The War on Drugs was officially started in 1971 and its latest headliner is the Opioid epidemic. Before this was the Prohibition which gave rise to speak easy's, moon shiners, and in some parts of the USA is still in effect.
When I heard the President's announcement of making opioid pain killers more difficult to obtain (3 days supply for regular use/7 day supply for acute pain) it felt like a gut punch. At the time the only pain killers that were touching the pain I was in were Opioids. I can only imagine what it was like to hear that and be someone who still is dependent on them for daily pain management (at least my pain will fade as I heal). At the same time I understand why the President would push such a change in laws; it would force the drug companies to come up with better pain management drugs.
However I think we are going about this the wrong way. We are setting ourselves into an binary answer system for a system (the body) that is not binary. I hated the opioids I was prescribed while I was on them, yet took them because they did the job. However some people have a different outcome, some got addicted. Part of the surge in the opioid epidemic comes from the 1990s and lets be honest I don't think any one really understood the drugs impact until this epidemic came about. So we have learned that while an opioid is great at relieving pain (who wants to watch a person suffer?), there are a great many who get addicted to them while using them under medical supervision.
Why?
One of the reasons I hated the opioid was that I had no sense of time; days passed without my fully knowing they had. Keeping a calendar of things to do, list of physical therapy to do, listing the date and time of the therapy done was needed; if I didn't do these things I would forget what needed to be done and if I had completed the task. Only the things that had a dramatic impact on my emotions got stored in memory. This was a rather nice thing as those days slipped past rather quickly for me; I slept a lot too.
And it drove me batty. My memory was not retaining information and (bless my mom) it wasn't until chinese checkers became a part of my daily routine that I started to see how much the opioid was effecting my ability to think. While on one particular opioid I also had a little voice trying to convenience me that I was more capable that I was. It took a very good friend with a very strong will and logic to get me to realize I could not go back to work; I was unaware of my actual condition and how much I was sleeping.
Because of the way the drug works on the mind I can understand why some people would become dependent on it. Let me see if I can put this into words...
No longer do we respect those who do jobs that are considered lessor. Working safety and security for the last 15 years has taught me a lot about this. If you don't believe me ask your self this; What is my opinion of the Security Officers at the Airport? or What is my opinion of the people who pick up my trash every week? When you are hated by the society at large, don't know or can't change your position to one that is not hated many will fall for an escape.
Then there is the ever present depression that tries to take over while you are healing from a major set back like I am. This depression tries to get you to not do your physical therapy, because the pain won't end; in-fact it gets worse for a bit. This depression tries to get you to focus on what you can't do, instead of how much progress you have already made. This depression tries to get to you through what you can no longer do and have a good chance of not being able to do for a long while. If you think about it; how many have become addicted because they were prescribed opioids after a major set back? How many of those were young adults with promising futures that are no longer possible or made significantly more difficult to obtain because of their set back?
As always your comments are welcome! Please let me know what you would like to hear about.
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