Interesting Information re: war on doctors in FL

These new laws in Florida are having a major impact upon legitimate patients who need pain medications for real illnesses and injuries such as cancer, lyme disease, elher's danlos, severe damage to the spine and more. They are being denied pain medication when they present a legal prescription to the pharmacy, even those who have never shown any drug seeking/addictive behavior. Even patients who have filled at the same pharmacy for years (exactly 30 days apart, always from the same doctor; following all the rules), without any incidents such as demanding early refills or saying they lost their meds, are being turned away.

The statistics

Some pharmacies are refusing to bill insurance companies for narcotic prescriptions ( and only the CII scripts; they'll fill and bill for anything else for the same patient), demanding the customer pay cash and charges anywhere from $6.00 to $15.00 per pill.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/01/4232649/pain-clinics-pharmacies-deny-pain.html

As a chronic pain patient I have no problem following all the rules, am seen at the same doctor's office that I have used for the last 9 years, use the same pharmacy for those same 9 years (for all meds), pass all my urine and blood tests for medication levels etc. etc. Yet now I have to worry that I will be refused my medication without cause by the pharmcy or the pharmacy demands I pay cash when I have insurance and they've always billed the insurance until this month?


The government is using false statistics. Anyone who dies with a narcotic in their blood stream is included in their counting of deaths via these drugs, even when the drugs weren't the cause of death. They are not reporting that many of these deaths are by people with histories of drug abuse and with MULTIPLE drugs in their system, not just prescription pain killers. So long as there is a prescription pain killer in the person's system they are counted as a drug overdose to that medication, even if they died from a car accident, or combination of illegal drugs/alochol with the prescription medication. This is misleading people on purpose!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/us-painkillers-abuse_b_1263565.html

http://www.stats.org/stories/2012/attack_painkillers_misusing_statistics_jan31_12.html

http://stats.org/stories/2008/new_study_expose_oxy_plague_jan25_08.html

"the opioid issue looks very different when you examine the numbers closely. For one, the rates of Americans addicted to OxyContin, Vicodin, percocet, fentanyl and other products in our synthetic narcotic medicine cabinet are not rising. In fact, they have been steady at 0.8% since 2002, according to the government's own statistics."

http://www.alternet.org/media/153910/the_dangerous_panic_over_painkillers-Elin

"fewer than 1% of people over 30 (without a prior history of serious drug problems) become an addict while taking opioids; for chronic pain patients who are not screened for a history of previous drug problems, the addiction rate is 3.27%. That means, of course, that more than 96% do not become addicted."

"these statistics usually go unmentioned in media accounts because they do not confirm the preferred panic narrative. Also left out is the fact that around 80% of Oxy addicts (a) did not obtain the drug via legitimate prescription for pain and/or (b) had a prior experience of rehab. Their contact with the medical system—if any—was not what caused their addictions."



(same link as above)


2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health states that ,"non-medical use" of prescription painkillers in the last year among people aged 12 to 25 has actually dropped since 2002.

http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k10NSDUH/2k10Results.htm

It is really sad that my constitional right against illegal search and seizure has been removed with this new FL law. Any law enforcement official can now go into my doctor's office and say there is an investigation and walk out with a copy of my medical record, WITHOUT A WARRANT and without proving their is actually an investigation. Courts have upheld the idea that law enforcement can lie to people in order to get information. This new law removed the need of a warrant to obtain medical records for any patient who received a prescription pain medication.  Why is this allowed? because I am a chronic pain patient who takes opiates, so I don't get the same rights as others anymore. Why isn't this allowed against diabetics who can give away their needles or have them stolen by IV drug users? Why isn't this allowed for high blood pressure patients or any other patient in need of a maintence medication (med taken daily to control disease/illness)?

The other thing that is not making it into the news reports is that the vast majority of the "pill mills" (walk in, pay $200 bucks walk out with a bottle of hundreds of narcs) are already gone! Most of them have been gone for a year now. The DEA has shifted focus to any doctors who prescribe pain medication. They are also not reporting when trucks that are transporting the drugs are hijacked or robbed, nor are they reporting on the number of drugs that come from other countries such as Mexico. Instead they are focusing on doctors and pharmacies. As a result doctors and pharmacies fear treating pain and turn patients away, drop them from their practice, or just refuse to give them their medication.

Did you know that a patient going through narcotics withdrawal who also has high blood pressure is at a higher risk of dying from a stroke or seizures during withdrawal? This terrifies me! My possible death doesn't matter, so long as the people who CHOOSE to engage in illegal activities are saved from their own CHOICES.

Law enforcement should not be allowed to decide what appropriate pain treatment is for a patient, that is the doctor's job.

Anywhere from 75 to 116 million (depending on whose statistics you read) Americans live with chronic pain, yet we no longer deserve our constituitional rights or proper medical treatment because of the choices other people make.

It is NOT the doctors fault, nor the pharmacists' faults, that some people choose to take these meds and get high off of them. They should not be penalized for the choices people make.

As usual it is the chronic pain patients who are being denied proper medical care and suffering. Many of us won't speak out about it either. Why? Out of fear of being labeled a drug addict and losing what little pain control we do have (if any at all). Thus we are intimdated into losing our right to free speach because if we speak up, we are said to be "drug seeking" and "addicts" and lose medical treatment.

I am so scared. My doctors are scared.