A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

19 February 2015

Anti-opioid zealots hurt veterans

Last year, the federal government made the painkiller hydrocodone a Schedule II drug. It can no longer be refilled. Those needing it must first see a physician and obtain, according to some sources, a written prescription. That deliberate inconvenience is intended to discourage the use of opioids — and it’s working. According to the Washington Post, veterans are suffering because it’s become so much more difficult to obtain hydrocodone. And it’s affecting more than just a few:

Half of all returning troops suffer chronic pain, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. So a new generation of pain doctors is pushing for alternative ways to help veterans cope with chronic pain. Some alternatives are acupuncture, bright light therapy and medical marijuana. As part of a $21.7 million initiative with the National Institutes of Health, [the] VA is looking for therapies that could substitute for opioids.

Acupuncture? That’s quackery. Bright light therapy? Some think that’s an effective treatment for acne. But will it kill the pain of an amputation? Medical marijuana? Smoking it might dull the pain of war wounds, but what will dull the pain of the lung cancer caused by smoking the weed?

Moving hydrocodone to Schedule II was a terrible decision, a cruel decision, the triumph of anti-opioid zealotry over compassion for those in pain. It’s a policy with roots in a strain of religion holding that treating pain deprives the afflicted of the opportunity to earn the grace of God by enduring their suffering with dignity.

There is no dignity in suffering. There is only suffering. And where there is suffering because opioids have been denied, there is sin. Official sin. Government sin.