My feelings exactly. Thank you. The government has placed restrictions on on narcotics and benzodiazepines because #1 They were overprescribed in the 70’s through the 90’s. The physician’s and the pharmacists did not monitor refills and just kept prescribing. I was part of that group of people and became dependent on these drugs.
#2 Street drugs ,illegal, became the thing to do. Now I have never done street drugs. Some people experiment, some are already addicted, and some can’t get the therapeutic medications they were formerly on. So they go to illicit ways of obtaining drugs that are dangerous thinking they are getting fentanyl or heroin but they are combined together and are lethal and people overdose and die.
The extremes the drug companies, the providers, and pharmacies go to are over kill.
Recently I had a flare up of S1 joint pain, so severe I rated it on a scale of 10/10. I b]called the Dr’s office and left a message with a REAL person. I waited for a return call and never got one. My PCP was on vacation! My mobility was affected, my pain level did drop down to a 5/10. Three weeks to the day I was see by a physician I’d never seen before but he was congenial, understood my frustration and symptoms. He prescribed PT and I am gradually improving. I asked for Tramadol to help me cope with the pain for 4 days until I started PT 4 days later. “Take Tylenol and or Advil.” I have stage two kidney disease and was told by my nephrologist not to take NSAIDs. TYLENOL does absolutely nothing for my pain control.
So is this going to be another problem arising in the future? Dr’s telling a patient to take a medication that could permanently damage my kidneys, or just let me suffer.
I was only asking for 4 days of Tramadol. This practice is paranoid about prescribing scheduled drugs. I really believe the are afraid the FDA WILL LOCK THEM UP OR CLOSE THEIR PRACTICE.
There are days I would like to stop all meds and throw my body into seizures, severe anxiety, and death. I am so tired of fighting the system.

My doc wants me off ativan 0.5mg because he said I'll "fall". Makes no sense. It works for me the last 12 yrs. only a minimum dose.