PROOF that Rx Opioids NOT Part of Overdose Crisis

This post contains the critical proof we can use to push back against the anti-opioid policies threatening our lives. It draws on public government data and scientific studies to expose the lies promulgated by anti-opioid activists to blame our prescribed opioids for all overdose deaths.

I believe it’s so significant that I’ve created a separate page for it and I’ll be showing it at the top of this blog for a while:

Misperceptions about the ‘Opioid Epidemic’ Thoroughly Debunked with Government Data & Hard Science

Nurses Defend Doctor Charged in Hospital Deaths

Nurses Defend Ohio Doctor Charged in Deaths at Hospital – The New York Times – Dec. 20, 2019

After I’d annotated this article back in December, I went back to look at it and got the error” Page No Longer Available” from the NY Times. This has never happened before, so I’m left to wonder why this particular article would be disappeared.

I suspect it’s because it points out that the “leaders” of healthcare industries are utterly ignorant about opioid doses, while the people spending time with the real patients, like doctors and nurses, are doing their best to ease the pain and suffering of their most sick and dying patients.

Ten former colleagues of an Ohio hospital doctor who pleaded not guilty to murder in 25 patients’ deaths are coming to his defense in a new lawsuit.  

Scrutiny Of Painkiller Distributors Harms Patients

Scrutiny Of Painkiller Distributors Harms Patients – Sally Satel,  Contributor – Dec 2019

Anyone following the opioid problem knows about the delinquent practices of some drug distributors, the companies that deliver painkillers from manufacturers to pharmacies. 

By transporting “suspicious orders” – regulatory code for unrealistically large shipments — to rogue pharmacies, they helped fuel the crisis of addiction and overdose.

This is like a history lesson from 10 years ago when this was happening. By now the overdoses are no longer from pills because they’re too difficult to get and too expensive. Instead, they use some powdered street drug (heroin, meth, cocaine) that’s been laced with undetermined quantities of fentanyl, frequently enough to kill them. 

Opioid Prescribing and Physician Autonomy

Opioid Prescribing and Physician Autonomy: A Quality of Care Perspective –  free full-text /PMC6384205/ – Feb 2019

As one article published in American Family Physician in 2000 stated: “Despite recent advances in the understanding of pain management, patients continue to suffer needlessly, primarily because of improper management and inadequate pain medication”

This article evaluates the effectiveness of recent legislative mandates and restrictions on opioid prescribing and proposes alternative frameworks for combatting and preventing harms caused by the misuse of prescribed opioids.  

OPIOID FACTS: Are we getting the whole picture?

OPIOID FACTS: Are we getting the whole picture? “A Physician’s Perspective” – by medium.com/@ThomasKlineMD/ – Jun 2019

This is an article in quasi-interview format by Dr. Kline, who is also tracking the damage done by the “unintended consequences” of the CDC guideline with a list of SUICIDES associated with forced tapering of opiate pain treatments

Q: Is there an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths?

Not really.

The actual increase from 2014 to 2015 was in line with years past, a 0.001% increase. These are street overdose deaths in addiction communities, not in the general public. No particular year was statistically higher than another.  

Doctor reprimanded for treatment of pain patient

Portsmouth doctor reprimanded for treatment of chronic pain patient – by Shawne K. Wickham New Hampshire Sunday News – Jul 6, 2019 

This is incredibly good news: finally, a doctor is punished for forcing a significant dose reduction of opioid pain relief, which left his patient in agony and close to suicide.

A Portsmouth doctor has been reprimanded and fined by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine after he cut back a chronic pain patient’s prescription opioid painkillers — and then dropped him as a patient altogether after the man threatened suicide.

Joshua Greenspan, who is board certified in pain management and anesthesiology, signed a settlement agreement in May to resolve allegations of professional misconduct.  

FDA identifies harm from discontinuation of opioids

Drug Safety and Availability > FDA identifies harm reported from sudden discontinuation of opioid pain medicines and requires label changes to guide prescribers on gradual, individualized tapering

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports of serious harm in patients who are physically dependent on opioid pain medicines suddenly having these medicines discontinued or the dose rapidly decreased. These include serious withdrawal symptoms, uncontrolled pain, psychological distress, and suicide.

It’s strange to read this acknowledgment of “harms” from forced tapers after three full years of seeing these “harms” implemented very deliberately as a consequence of the disastrous CDC opioid prescribing guideline.

While we continue to track this safety concern as part of our ongoing monitoring of risks associated with opioid pain medicines, we are requiring changes to the prescribing information for these medicines that are intended for use in the outpatient setting.

“We continue to track this safety concern” implies they’ve been doing this all along, which they have not. 

Comment on Opioid Limits to HHS Task Force

This was published in the National Pain Report as What I Told the U.S. Government About Pain, but in case you didn’t see it, here it is:

I just have so much to say about this governmental intrusion into our medical care that I couldn’t figure out what to write. So, I decided to comment on just one facet of this ridiculous “war on opioids”: standardizing opioid milligrams prescribed for pain.

I believe we can leave numerous comments, starting with a fresh form each time so I may write another. Just to give you ideas, here’s the comment I left:

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I’m writing to urge that you please don’t let the government set standard opioid dose limits for individual patients. Opioids are my only means of relief from a painful connective tissue disorder.  

A patient’s opposition to the anti-opioid movement

A patient’s opposition to the anti-opioid movement – KevinMD.com – Mar 2019

I wrote this essay for the doctors’ blog, KevinMD.com. My original title was “California’s Death of Sanity Project” as I criticize what’s called the “California Death Certificate Project”.

It’s bad enough that they are prosecuting doctors for prescription they are writing now, but this project goes up to three years into the past, looking for any opioid prescription to a person who overdoses, even years after they received the prescription, even if the overdose was from fentanyl or a combination of multiple illicit drugs.

As I end my essay:

Trying to stem illicit opioid overdose deaths by mandating restrictions on opioids for patients in pain is only a cruel experiment fueled by ignorance and fear.

— Read on www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/03/a-patients-opposition-to-the-anti-opioid-movement.html

Opioid Policies Based On Morphine Milligrams

Opioid Policies Based On Morphine Milligram Equivalents Are Automatically Flawed – By Josh Bloom — October 23, 2018

• Calhoun, who died in 1989 at age 55, was 6’4″ and weighed 601 pounds. 
• Dinklage, who is 4’5″ tall, weighs 110 pounds.

Now imagine that both Dinklage and Calhoun have headaches and need aspirin. The recommended adult dose for Bayer Aspirin is two 325 mg tablets every four hours.

Will this dose be suitable for both men?