General Discussion

I had a spiral fracture of both bones in my leg a few years ago The pain when the spiraling long, jagged edge of the break tore into the flesh of my leg as the doctors worked to stabilize it was excruciating - and required narcotic pain relief to quell - including a prescription for oxy, which I used for 3-4 days. Earlier, I had surgery to remove my top rib. The incompetent doctor used a method of anesthesia that required him to administer Narcan. Because of the risks of medically untrained staff transporting me from recovery to my room I was refused pain medication until I got to my room, where I was not moving fast enough to move from the transport bed to my hospital bed, so the staff folded me into the sheets, forcing the flesh in my chest (and the weight of my upper body) onto the rough edge of the bone which had just been cut. Then, because they forgot to put in a food order, I couldn't have any pain medication until after they corrected that error. Again, that pain required opioids to quell - and for the first few days of recovery at home.

Those are the two worst pains I've experienced.

I have also had around 10 more surgeries, and I live with chronic pain. After most surgeries, I needed oxycocone for the first couple of days home. Pain slows healing, and best practices dictate you stay ahead of the pain. My chronic pain does not require opioids - but I know people who have chronic pain that does require opioids.

I hoard the remainder of each prescription (I've probably got about 40 pills) because of the restrictions on prescribing - solely designed to minimize abuse - mean that when we need opioids for pain relief we have to pay for a doctor's visit (and visit the doctor while we are in significant pain) in order to get pain relief. My spouse has frequent kidney stones. She and her doctor both know exactly what is going on when she has another. But her doctor cannot call in a prescription for her to take the edge off of the pain while she waits for it to either pass or have surgery. Ditto for the shingles she has had around 5 times. Their advice: Go to the ER (a waste of resources) because they are not permitted to prescribe pain medication for these known conditions which require opioids to relieve - because they don't have any available appointments for 1-3 weeks, and they are prohibited from prescribing without actually seeing her. They know we have opioids hoarded from prior times when we needed them, and have authorized her to use them in both instances.

There is nothing inherently wrong with oxy. It is a powerful medicine, and it should not be prescribed like candy. But it has valid medical uses for which there is no substitute. Restricting it so that people who need it cannot have access to it when it is needed (or forcing those who need it to jump through hoops/pay additional money (doctor's visits and ER visits are not free))is completely unaccceptable.

As for comparing deaths from oxy to deaths from COVID - it is not even close.

US Deaths involving prescription drugs (including deaths from a combination of prescription and other drugs - and the prescription drugs involved were not all oxycontin) hit 15,482 at their all time peak in 2017. In 2021, there were 9173 US deaths from ALL prescription drugs (including deaths resulting from a combination of prescription and other drugs.) In contrast, in 2020 350,831 people died from COVID. In 2021, there were 415,000 deaths due to COVID. It is out of touch with reality to suggest that deaths from oxy were "way more than COVID."