Have you gone back to your doctor and told him what it has been like since the decrease. I honestly do not see how he can justify cutting your dose in half because the strength of pill you were taking was discontinued. BTW no there is NO limit to how many pills they can prescribe to a person, they just need to be able to defend why they had to prescribe that many if they are investigated (this is no doubt your doctors fear, that prescribing that many pills a month will draw unwanted attention).
Excuse my language but this is another in a long line of crapty things the DEA has done to "reduce diversion" at the expense of patients. They are so single minded about
trying to stop drug use that they trample everyone else in the attempt. And all for something that is: 1. A completely and utterly hopeless goal (stopping drug use) and 2. Is on fairly questionable moral grounds. Some feel it is not the government's job to stop people from taking drugs in the first place, and that jailing them for it is puritanical because it is punishing them for their different moral beliefs. Not to mention the fact even more people feel that often the laws do more damage than the drug use itself. An editorial once put it very well: Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama all are known to have used drugs, and this apparently is not a problem in the eye of the public (given their political success). However had any one of them ever been arrested for drugs they would have never had a chance at becoming as successful as they are due the fact that they would have a criminal record. And to top it off, 'The War on Drugs' forgotten casualties are the patients who are receiving inadequate care due any number of ridiculous attempts to stem drug use. Here is one of my favorite examples:
Diacytlemorphine is a pain medication that is proven to be more effective at a lower dose and with fewer side effects than many other strong opioids for treating very severe pain for lot of people. This is especially true of end stage cancer patients. One very large advantage it has is that for some people who have end stage cancer this med is less sedating and allows them to communicate with their families and be more aware in their last days than other opioids. This drug is available for prescript
ion in England and widely used there, as well as in other European nations. It is not however, available for prescript
ion in the U.S. because it is a Schedule I drug and 'has no accepted medical value.' It is not prescribed, because, in the opinion of the DEA it is too addictive and should not be prescribed. The only issue is that this medication is available in every city in the US and is sold on street corners throughout the country, anyone who wants to buy this medication can. Diacytlemorphine is also known as Herion. Now shall we analyze who suffers from this arrangement. Despite the fact that there is no legal source for herion in US (because it cannot be prescribed), it is extremely easy to get for anyone who wants it, that is, for drug users. However, cancer patients and other sufferers of extreme pain who might benefit from another option to try for pain relief (might I add one with many benefits for some people) generally stay within the medical establishment for their pain-relief, and do not go to illicit sources. Drug users however have no qualms buying their drugs from outside the system. So it is obvious this situation really only detriments legitimate patients (and getting back on topic), just like the change in methadone pills affecting Pains. They only detriment legitimate patients because what the Gov't is too short-sighted to see is that all of addicts will simply find another source, because they are not confined to legal methods. Not having herion available for prescript
ion is simply based on the strong stigma surrounding herion just the same way that because methadone has been getting all this bad press lately the DEA has to do something about
. Both are completely irrational. If the government made drugs illegal because they are addictive than they would certainly have to make Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and Oxymorphone (Opana), both of which numerous studies show that addicts actually prefer OVER herion. And to show how irrational the change with the methadone tabs is, well, they are continuing to give them out for Methadone Maintenance (to recovering drug addicts), just not pain patients. This seems fine, however, the vast majority of methadone deaths were with methadone from a Methadone clinic. Many of the addicts, it turns out, die taking benzos or other drugs on their methadone, or sell their methadone to people, some of whom overdose and die with that methadone dispensed from the Methadone Clinic. It is merely an act so the DEA can say it is fighting 'The War on Methadone.' Well they are winning the war on pain patients.
I hope that my post is not too long and off topic for people. I could go on and on there is just so much wrong with 'The War on Drugs,' from screwing up foreign policy, to empowering gangs, to the racist drug laws (not being melodramatic look up the 100-1 discrepancy between powder cocaine and crack cocaine). It is just infuriating to me what the Gov't does because they are trying to rid the world of drugs, a goal that is in my mind absurd in its futility. Though I do not propose to know the answers to the drug-abuse problems, after 80 years of trying the current policy, with only rising drug-use rates, I think it is obvious that filling our jails with drug offenders is not the solution and that it is time for SOME kind of new direction. I dont really care what, just something different.
I hope everything works out for you Pains. Like I said, call the doc again and see what he says. I dont think that another doctor would raise your dose that high, especially now that you are down again. But maybe.
Good luck.
Post Edited (Circa1988) : 1/15/2008 4:17:20 AM (GMT-7)