Unfortunately, pain control is no longer adequate, generally speaking, because the DEA has cut production of opioids by about a 4th, and the use of cheap, effective meds for chronic, acute, and end of life pain has been radically reduced due to a very non-scientific misrepresentation of the facts. Prescription chronic pain patients were not the source of the opioid crisis. That was back door folks here and in other countries selling batches to drug dealers. At most up to 8% of opioid prescription drug users became addicted, and SO WHAT?

A recent peer reviewed study by a female Harvard oncologist in 2023 (I can look up link) indicated that Hospice patients are on greatly reduced, often ineffective pain meds--and guess who's had their dosages reduced the most in the past 10 years? BLACK WOMEN.

How is that a study was publicized from 2022 in which women patients reported their pain being attributed to mental problems EIGHT TIMES more often than men did, and yet this war on pain meds isn't seen as the sexist, eugenicist, victim-blaming exercise it is? Vets are caught up in it too, but if you follow the trends documented only by doctor/patient alliances to address this damaging NeoProhibition, suicides of despair are way up compared to 10 yrs ago while opioid use is at record lows. Fentanyl deaths, however, are up, Maybe desperate caregivers and/or patients are having to go to the streets to get meds, as many doctors have reported advising their patients b/c their hands are tied--or maybe drug dealers feel free to bring it in while compassionate doctors are having their assets seized by law enforcement.

It's one thing to face aging, disability, pain, grief, and death--it's another watching a major social movement leading to suicides or state-approved state euthanasia. It's bad enough facing the ageism and sexism of turning 60, but now w/ Canada and California's proposed euthanasia-even-without-imminent-death programs, those of us who can't take generic effective meds that cost pennies to improve our functionality and quality of life can get the State to give us ONE BIG DOSE OF THOSE MEDS and then poof, we're off the disability and social security rolls.

This to me keeps me going. I never thought I'd see the day where, like my grandfather born in 1901 who was writhing in pain on his deathbed until my Mom got the doctor to give him morphine (despite in the 70s their fear he'd become "addicted), I'm now facing ongoing humiliation and suffering to only end in suicide. This is insane.

Check out Doctor/Patient Forum or Pain News Network. They're just starting to get some congresspeople on board. We need hearings. This is MAID by another name. God bless.