Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom was killed in a head on collision 3 years ago. Other driver walked away and blood test detected heroin in his system. Six months later my step-brother overdosed on heroin. I had a 6 month old when my mom was killed. It was a shitty year.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

Anonymous wrote:I am actually glad that this current crisis is listed as a "health" crisis and not a "criminal" one. A decade ago, if someone was on crack or an opiates, they would label them a criminal and throw them in jail. So the new tone is a good thing. Now I know the demographic reason why that tone changed, but I am still hopeful that this will be the tone of the discussion moving forward.

Anonymous wrote:My cousin dropped out of med school as a heroin addict. No one had any idea until he OD'd. He apparently had been injured in a basketball game in college, was prescribed pain relievers, and got hooked. He made it through 1.5 years of med school, about 2 years from the initial prescription. His parents were floored. He'd always been their golden child. Last I heard he was in rehab and doing okay, but my aunt doesn't share much. Even if he recovers, it has totally derailed his life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the flip side my parent needs a low dose to leave her bed every day. She can only get a 30 day supply and is treated like a criminal every time she goes to the pain clinic. There are no surgeries for her condition and she's tried everything. She's not an addict and never takes more than her low dose. When she runs out, she just cries in bed and is unable to move. We've had to carry her to doctors appointments. The lack of availability of Percocet has limited her life. She has to schedule vacations in between her doctors appointments and often misses holidays and birthdays because she can't travel close to her refill dates. She would like to move closer to her granchildren but can't because she can't find a doctor. She carries her MRI results with her in case of emergency.

I'm worried what happens when Percocet is banned

My dad and I worry that if Percocet is banned that she would turn to the black market or heroin. She's so crippled physically in pain daily. I think this is why a lot of people turn to heroin.

I am sorry for her pain. Still it sounds like she needs to find a new doctor. The doctor shouldn’t treat her like a criminal if s/he properly understands and is treating the condition. In a nut shell, she shouldn’t be running out. The refill/follow up would be scheduled on day 29, so that on day 31 she begins the script.

Pp here. She can only get a refill every 30 days and she needs a doctors appointment before she can get a refill. If her day 30 is a Saturday, she will run out until a doctors appointment on Monday. Or sometimes there's a holiday. She tries to stretch the pills and skip so she can travel to see me. She knew she was running out near my births but didn't want to miss her grandsons births.

Also, traveling is hard on her body and she's in more pain when traveling. It would be so nice if it automatically refilled and she could transfer the refill to a pharmacy near me. She has a condition similar to RA plus 4 herniated discs in her back. She's perfectly normal on the pill, bed ridden without.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew is. He was an elite HS athlete with several offers to play his sport at a Division I school. He suffered a pretty bad injury that required surgery and got addicted to the pain pills afterwards and during his rehab. He still got into the university and no one even knew he had a problem until late in his first year there. Obtaining the pain pills illegally became too hard and expensive, so his dealer told him to try heroin, which was cheaper.

He was given a warning that academic probation would be enforced since he was missing and failing all of his classes, which meant his coach was alerted. When his coach tried to contact him for a week with no luck, he finally went to his dorm where my nephew's roommate told him that he'd had a family emergency and left town. The coach contacted my SIL & BIL, who were totally in the dark and confused. My nephew's web of lies started unraveling. It took them a trip to his university and filing a missing person's report to even find my nephew. He hadn't been seen in weeks at that point and his phone was off.

They took him straight to rehab, but he was using again within weeks of being released. They had to kick him out of the house because he was bringing in drugs and using them there with his younger siblings around. He stole from them and other family members and even got violent with some. My BIL sent a family-wide email that said, "in case you didn't know, ____ is a heroin addict who has relapsed after rehab and is in a bad place. He's started stealing and become violent. If he shows up at your house, do not let him in." I can't even imagine having to write something so heartbreaking about your kid.

He was in and out of rehab several more times. It wasn't until earlier this year when he OD'd that something clicked and he realized he really needed help. He's been clean for almost 6 months, which is his longest stretch yet and everyone is hopeful.

Wow. I wish him the best. So sorry your family is going through this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the flip side my parent needs a low dose to leave her bed every day. She can only get a 30 day supply and is treated like a criminal every time she goes to the pain clinic. There are no surgeries for her condition and she's tried everything. She's not an addict and never takes more than her low dose. When she runs out, she just cries in bed and is unable to move. We've had to carry her to doctors appointments. The lack of availability of Percocet has limited her life. She has to schedule vacations in between her doctors appointments and often misses holidays and birthdays because she can't travel close to her refill dates. She would like to move closer to her granchildren but can't because she can't find a doctor. She carries her MRI results with her in case of emergency.

I'm worried what happens when Percocet is banned

My dad and I worry that if Percocet is banned that she would turn to the black market or heroin. She's so crippled physically in pain daily. I think this is why a lot of people turn to heroin.

I am sorry for her pain. Still it sounds like she needs to find a new doctor. The doctor shouldn’t treat her like a criminal if s/he properly understands and is treating the condition. In a nut shell, she shouldn’t be running out. The refill/follow up would be scheduled on day 29, so that on day 31 she begins the script.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine, too. My brother became addicted to Percocet and Vicodin and then moved on to heroin. He's in recovery, but each day is an uphill battle.

We were raised in a loving, upper middle class family, went to the best schools and had every opportunity in life.

Keep up the cluelessness

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am actually glad that this current crisis is listed as a "health" crisis and not a "criminal" one. A decade ago, if someone was on crack or an opiates, they would label them a criminal and throw them in jail. So the new tone is a good thing. Now I know the demographic reason why that tone changed, but I am still hopeful that this will be the tone of the discussion moving forward.

Yes, that's one of the positive things about our societal change away from criminalizing and/or neglecting the fringe populations. You can see it in how schools approach special education (good), how governments implement regulations on wheelchair access (good), even in the pet industry, how dogs and cats are elevated to human status when they weren't before (expensive surgeries, Halloween costumes, etc). I would say the one negative aspect is how parents treat their kids like special snowflakes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the flip side my parent needs a low dose to leave her bed every day. She can only get a 30 day supply and is treated like a criminal every time she goes to the pain clinic. There are no surgeries for her condition and she's tried everything. She's not an addict and never takes more than her low dose. When she runs out, she just cries in bed and is unable to move. We've had to carry her to doctors appointments. The lack of availability of Percocet has limited her life. She has to schedule vacations in between her doctors appointments and often misses holidays and birthdays because she can't travel close to her refill dates. She would like to move closer to her granchildren but can't because she can't find a doctor. She carries her MRI results with her in case of emergency.

I'm worried what happens when Percocet is banned

My dad and I worry that if Percocet is banned that she would turn to the black market or heroin. She's so crippled physically in pain daily. I think this is why a lot of people turn to heroin.

Anonymous wrote:Ditto for alcoholism. We are surrounded by functional alcoholics. Most of us don't realize it until a loved one has the issue and it impacts your life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have my sympathy. I agree addiction can happen to anyone.

I’m a bit frustrated that our government and society can move now with haste and compassion to reform our legal and health systems when crack ravaged my community for years and all we got was militarized policing and mandatory sentencing laws.

Can I also add, this isn't a "white" problem, although my post makes the point that rich white people can suffer from it too. My husband's treatment group is filled with people of all races.