Do you or a loved one experience moderate to severe pain that is either undertreated or untreated?! 
Do you get gaslit and never told what is wrong and only what can’t be wrong?! The time is NOW to start speaking up about it and making a difference to STOP the NEEDLESS SUFFERING! 
 I know this is a long one but it is truly worth it. Thank you for your time, and please sign to amplify our voices! This is long overdue for the chronically ill community!
 I am a chronic pain patient, with severe intractable pain, and I am not alone. There are tens of millions of us in our country who live with moderate to severe pain. We are dealing with limitations on Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MMEs) that require doses above what many government entities and others have determined is a fixed limit to effectively manage our conditions. Additionally, many of us have multiple chemical sensitivities that make it difficult to try new drugs available. Tolerance is an issue due to the longevity of taking medications to help our pain, but it is easily resolved by rotating opioids. There are also genetic predispositions that make it where we metabolize certain chemicals in a certain way that is different from the norm. In addition, different medications have varying bioavailability, and the combination of varying pharmacokinetics, with these other factors makes MME a completely unreliable and unscientific concept. In fact, there was a global consensus on this point thirty years ago, and the current data does not bear out the idea of morphine milligram equivalents.  Nobody should be left to suffer in pain.  Pain is a universal human experience, yet many patients, like me, are left to suffer needlessly in pain that could have been avoided. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 50 million adults in the U.S suffer from chronic pain, which is defined as pain most days or every day for at least six months. A lot of us have been in this painful game for more than 20 years. Not only that, but we have also succumbed to many invasive, dangerous, and at times, life-threatening surgical procedures, injections, and/or device implants that caused further damage just because there is a fear of addiction to a medication. At what point does that change? When does it matter about addiction? Is it during treatment OR after being treated for 18 months with opioid therapy just to be ripped off because the DEA is breathing down a doctor’s neck? Our government of the United States of America should have no say as to what healthcare we receive. Nobody should be left to suffer in pain.  Pain is subjective and situational in nature. With that being the nature of it, it should be treated as such. Most of us have been suffering for more than 20 years. People are walking out of open-heart surgery with Tylenol to keep them moving. That is both inadequate and an insult. I went to the emergency room for a bad fall, and they gave me pain medicine for the first time in 10 years. My primary care doctor followed up with a prescription for an anti-seizure medication, as if that could adequately address a broken foot, a rib fracture, and spraining both of my knees and ankles.” The anti-seizure medication was Gapapentin, which is used off-label over 95% of the time. I had also taken it in the past, and it caused permanent side effects, some of which have lingered more than a decade later. When a patient indicates a need for a higher dose of medication, it should be standard protocol for healthcare providers to run pharmacogentic/pharmacogenomic testing to determine the appropriate medications, dosages, and potential risk or benefits to an individual. This is in the place of gaslighting a patient or giving a medication and causing further harm! Nobody should be left to suffer in pain. Tools such as NarxCare’s “Narc Score,” the A.C.E. test, and the like have no clinical value in determining a patient's alleged risk of addiction. These artificial intelligence programs also discriminate against patients by using credit records, marital status, gender, litigation background, and other factors. NarxCare was recently acquired by a credit reporting agency, so rather than being assessed based on clinical impressions, patient reports, and genuine need, patients who may need pain medication are functionally treated as a danger if their credit background, and matters that should be confidential and never used to determine alleged “risk” status are routinely utilized to tell healthcare providers not to prescribe an appropriate dosage of a medically-necessary treatment, or to withhold such medications entirely. Many people would likely have scores against them just for simply existing. Moreover, these tests have done significant harm by telling medical providers how to do their jobs, and such testing routinely dictates that ANY opioid prescription at or above a certain MME makes a patient “at risk” for addiction. In effect, patients with complex, real health conditions that cause unimaginable pain are punished for having such conditions. Pain is not something we imagine; it is not fictitious, and it is not something that patients simply “create” because of purported mental health issues or emotions. There are psychological tests that score an addictive personality, but not to what substances. Sugar, caffeine, and nicotine are the most addictive substances, but people who are addicted to them are not stigmatized or denied the fundamental right to adequate healthcare. But those are not stigmatized for those that they affect. Nobody should be left to suffer in pain. Medical PTSD is an emerging major factor in our healthcare which is a direct result of doctors using the experiences of other patients to decide on our individual healthcare. It feels inappropriate to be treated like there is a one-size-fits-all treatment for everyone, and to have a completely different person’s experience by being used to deny individuals their specific healthcare needs. The governmental agencies that are making decisions on our strength of dosage for care, aren't even doctors. At what point is it appropriate to continue allowing people with no medical expertise whatsoever to make decisions regarding our healthcare? In addition to being denied a medication that has an excellent safety profile and efficacy rate for certain patients, we are also told to take Tylenol, ibuprofen, or both, to treat excruciating pain. Why would we be in a specialist’s office if it were that easy? Most chronic pain patients know exactly what has helped them and what has harmed them in their past. Yet, because the government has its hands dipped in the healthcare industry, prescription pain medications, that are safe and effective, is a frowned-upon concept, and patients who take such medications are often told that merely having an opioid prescription is “drug seeking behavior.” Any person who goes to the doctor is essentially drug seeking, no matter what substance it is. We look to doctors for help with our health. We have been taught to seek out help from our doctors as if they are the winning ticket to our livelihoods. Why isn’t this left at the doctoral level when it comes to treating pain? Nobody should be left to suffer in pain. When do pain patients get the ability to be heard and not mocked or told "it's simply impossible to be in that much pain?" When will pain patients not be treated as if we are criminals (pill counts, urinalysis, follicle testing, etc.)? If a patient isn't trying to fill early or asking for more pills, why the testing? Pain contracts are also detrimental to patients and our health. Studies show that they can undermine a clinical relationship, forcing doctors to view patients as “risks” and statistics, rather than people. Those documents create an environment where if we were to go to the ER, they wouldn't be allowed to treat our pain. We are completely unheard when we tell doctors that we cannot take a certain medication due to a bad reaction. The doctors will usually say, "That happened back then; what if it works differently now?" This is not ok.  OUR health history is a major factor when it comes to the treatments used for our symptoms.  Looking at the timeline of what symptoms happened when and what the environment was at the time, is of utmost importance when it comes to diagnosing and prognosis. Regardless of what an arbitrary computer risk tool, elected official, or even healthcare workers, may think, our pain is real. Our pain is a true experience. People who are not mental health professionals should never be offhandedly diagnosing mental illness as the cause of our pain and reason for seeking medical attention. We are referred to specialists that our doctors deem appropriate for our list of symptomology and concerns. We are not referred to be talked down to or to be belittled or even shamed for needing pain treatment. We are referred to receive quality of life so that we can do something with our lives. Nobody should be left to suffer in pain. The current guidelines on opioid prescriptions limit access to effective treatments for people with severe chronic pain conditions and fail to consider individual patient needs and circumstances. This one-size-fits-all approach leaves many patients undertreated and unnecessarily suffering. Most people who take opioid medications are already disabled. Those that are still working may need them to continue to work to provide for their family. Sometimes, that is their only choice. Many of us need pain medication to function in our daily lives. Many of us must have something to even get out of bed because the pain is so horrific. Chronic pain patients have flares, which should be considered and treated as acute pain. Chronic pain, in and of itself, is a disease of its own, merely due to the nature of our nervous system. Once you have chronic pain, it doesn’t get better, it just worsens.  Patients are forced to ask themselves “What do I do when I am in pain? Do I pick up Tylenol or ibuprofen or Aleve?” Now imagine that you’ve done that for ten years now, and it seems to not be helpful anymore and causes undesirable effects that can be permanent. Imagine reaching out for help and having your hand slapped away because someone else had a bad experience requesting the same help. Imagine, FINALLY going to the emergency room after waiting around to make sure you aren’t overreacting and calling your doctor, trying to avoid going, all just to get there and be treated as if you are a criminal. Imagine going to the emergency room with stroke like symptoms, due to a severely complex migraine (which opioids don’t even treat) and only getting opioid counseling. You were there to ensure you didn’t have a stroke. You have been forced to wait four hours because someone doesn’t believe you. Imagine that patient doesn’t live because some doctor chose to not believe them at all. It has been a very long time since I’ve experienced going to the hospital and leaving with any type of prescription, let alone pain meds. It’s so bad for us that they won’t even give us fluids. We are forced to choose the worst afflicted body part, when a lot of the time, the problem is systemic. Imagine being in the ER for a bad accident, and they only want to offer you Gabapentin, which takes weeks to get into your system in the first place. You just want your pain treated appropriately. Welcome to the reality of the chronic pain patient. Nobody should be left to suffer needlessly.  We believe that all patients should have access to comprehensive care that includes appropriate use of medication, including opioids, if necessary. It's time to prioritize patient welfare over blanket policies. If there is something suspected when it comes to a substance and the question of addiction, the standard policy should consist of pharmacogenetics as well as Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, (MTHFR), genetic testing as well. The DEA is making it look like pain patients that are “overdosing” everywhere, when in fact, they are dying from illicit fentanyl poisonings. The verbiage must change. The way pain medications are spoken about is highly detrimental to our quality of life. Anyone who takes pain medication is automatically considered an addict in society. When people self-medicate with alcohol, where is the same outrage? When diabetics cannot stop consuming sugar, where is the same outrage? Someone with high blood pressure that can’t get stress out of their lives (because that is impossible); where is that outrage? When someone must take a higher dose of mental health medication, where is that outrage? When patients are left high and dry to fend for themselves, and they find that marijuana is helpful, they are chastised. At what point is it anyone else’s responsibility to determine what medical interventions happen to my own body? At what point is this not abusive behavior toward disabled people? Most chronic pain patients cannot defend themselves, making it even easier to take advantage of a highly vulnerable group of people. Even the AMA has tried to correct the CDC, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Why is the verbiage not being corrected from overdoses to poisonings? Regardless of any part of a patient’s past, their pain should be treated appropriately. Nobody should be left to suffer needlessly.  Most people with substance use disorders are people that were dismissed by doctors on behalf of the government of the United States of America. Free needles were passed out to show support for them, but what does that really look like? These people are being poisoned daily. Safe injection sites just enable the addiction to continue. There are formulated drugs that can help people, which are safe and fully regulated. Why would anyone want to encourage someone to poison themselves to death? It’s illegal to tell someone to kill themselves but this isn’t blatantly that in an action rather than words? Why wouldn’t the course of action be that people need to be treated for whatever they are struggling with? People don’t need more dangerous drugs.  That mentality is very harmful for anyone seeking medical help. Legalizing every substance wouldn’t fully help, someone will still manufacture it illicitly. Our primary course of action should be to listen, believe, validate, and treat patients’ pain appropriately for them as an individual. If there is a mental health component, refer appropriately, rather than making someone feel that they are creating their pain. Pain patients will be heard. We are a demographic of people that have been forced to live in excruciating pain without help. Many of us have nothing to lose at this point. All pain patients are in pain. Their level of pain is determined by their worst pain experienced. If you don’t understand their answer, ask what their 10 (level on the pain scale) has been to understand better. Compassion must return to healthcare. People used to enter the healthcare industry because they had a calling to help and heal people. They cared about the well-being of their patients. The government has no business in our healthcare. Healthcare has to be individualized in order to be accurate. Science proves that a treatment that helps one person will not help someone else in the same way. Individualized care, as well as compassionate care, are what healthcare must return to. Money should never have been a driving force for healthcare. Nobody should be left to suffer in pain needlessly.  Please join us in urging health authorities nationwide to revise their guidelines on opioid prescriptions for chronic pain management, ensuring they consider individual patient needs and circumstances, rather than applying broad restrictions across the board. Sign this petition today because no one should be left suffering needlessly when there are options available.