You and I are just one illness, one accident away from joining the millions of chronic pain patients across this country. Pain knows no ethnic or socio-economic boundaries. It is an equal opportunity malady.
Call your US senator and Congressional representatives today. Ask them to please support the National Pain Care Act. This bill will facilitate the allocation of increased research dollars to the area of pain management at the National Institutes of health where at the present time approximately less than 1% of the dollars spent on research are designated for pain research.

Unrelieved pain is a growing Public Health crisis in this country. Millions of individuals are suffering in silence and isolation desperate for any relief that might be offered. Many are vulnerable prey to the newest fade or gizmo that proclaims it can “cure” their pain. We need better designed research studies that can get to the core of the problem of why the human nervous system can get turned on and generate continuous pain signals even in the absence of quantifiable pathology.

It is of grave concern that the same class of medications called OPIOIDS (Narcotic is a legal term used in the judicial system and has a very negative connotation) are being abused by a growing number of individuals. It is also of grave concern that the death rates are rising but it is not surprising, these are potent drugs and if not used properly they WILL kill. Insulin is also a drug that can kill if not used properly...the only reason it is not being abused on this grand scale is because you can not get high on Insulin. Pain patients do not get high...they get relief.

The truth of the matter is, there have been and will continue to be accidental deaths from prescription drugs. People will continue to use poor judgment and do stupid things in the use of their prescription drugs. People still drink and drive and thousands die on our highways each year. Are cars or alcohol rationed or decreased as a means of reducing the number of accidental deaths? Guns are dangerous. But the reality is that guns can kill and accidents will happen. And no matter how many deaths occur annually, abolition of firearms will never happen in our life time.

What is needed is balance. Balance in the news reporting of the issues. There are 2 sides to every story. and The Balance of policy and regulation to curb addiction, diversion and unintended deaths against the needs of millions of persons in pain who depend on this class of drug to function and have any quality of life.

To learn more about what you can do to advocate for quality pain care go to www.painfoundation.org