Stop using pain sufferers in the "war on drugs" and help pain sufferers and not treat them as addicts or drug seekers!

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This petition had 777 supporters

The Issue

Many strategies and options exist to treat chronic noncancer pain. Since chronic pain is not a single entity but may have myriad causes and perpetuating factors, these strategies and options vary from behavioral methods and rehabilitation approaches to the use of a number of different medications, including opioids.

Pain is one of the most common reasons people consult a physician, yet it frequently is inadequately treated, leading to enormous social cost in the form of lost productivity, needless suffering, and excessive healthcare expenditures.
Impediments to the use of opioids include concerns about addiction, respiratory depression and other side effects, tolerance, diversion, and fear of regulatory action.

State law and policy about opioid use are currently undergoing revision. The trend is to adopt laws or guidelines that specifically recognize the use of opioids to treat intractable pain. These statements serve as indicators of increased public awareness of the sequelae of undertreated pain and help clarify that the use of opioids for the relief of chronic pain is a legitimate medical practice.

Due to concerns about regulatory scrutiny, physicians need guidance as to what principles should generally be followed when prescribing opioids for chronic or recurrent pain states. Regulators have also expressed a need for guidelines to help them to distinguish legitimate medical practice from questionable practice and to allow them to appropriately concentrate investigative, educational, and disciplinary efforts, while not interfering with legitimate medical care.

Our petition hopes to make a universal pain Patient Bill Of Rights in all states of North America.

Make sure that pain patients have the right to adequate pain management.

Create greater understanding among health care professionals, individuals and families who are struggling with pain management, the business community, legislators, and the general public that pain is a serious public health issue and needs to change.

Offer a comprehensive guide of networks and resources and knowledge about issues in pain management with different pain syndromes.

 

avatar of the starter
DrPatty VerdugoPetition StarterMy mission in the life is to educate and empower those individual's whose lives changed due to chronic and/or intractable pain, to advocate on behalf of those who can not get proper medical treatment. We attempt to educate society that chronic pain could be a life long problem. We raise public and professional awareness for those who are unfamiliar with chronic pain, the factors that often result in having chronic pain. We encourage these in the chronic pain community (and our private website) to never give up in the search to help themselves or families and to reach their full potential in learning how to live a life in pain and still love life.

The Decision Makers

• Petitioned The United States Senate And President Obama
Dr. Patty's Chronic-Intractable Pain and You Sites, Inc.
Responded
“Chronic pain sufferers have long been treated as second class citizens in their own country. Many have little to no access to proper medical care, forcing them to live with unnecessary and dangerous levels of unrelieved pain. The mistreatment and abuse of pain patients is a direct result of our misguided drug policies. Most physicians are now too afraid to treat patients who suffer from chronic pain, even those with terminal diseases like cancer are being turned away, because overzealous regulatory agencies that are being allowed to break the laws created to prevent them from interfering with standard medical care. The government's intervention within medicine, through the “War on Drugs,” has had a detrimental effect on the standard of medical care and the quality of life of millions of people who are sick and disabled, yet has done nothing to prevent or stop drug abuse or addiction. Currently, nothing the state or federal government is doing is deterring drug abuse but it has had an enormous effect on treating chronic pain. This must not be allowed to continue. A change in perspective is needed regarding our nation's drug laws before more damage is done to the chronic pain community! C.M. Phillips”

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