FROM THE LAWHERN FILES:
RICHARD LAWHERN LETTER TO WASHINGTON POST WRITERS OF
Mr Gegbelhoff and Ms Buzbee,
“….I encourage you to take a harder look at “the other side of the opioid crisis”. That’s the one where millions of people in pain are being denied access to safe and effective opioid therapy and their doctors are being persecuted out of practice by an out-of-control DEA and DoJ. We are indeed facing a public health crisis — one sourced in illegal street drugs rather than medical prescribing for pain. But this is a distinction that your reporters seem determined to utterly ignore, despite its horrid impacts on public policy and public health.“
JEFF SINGER MD:
“Following the Science” is good advice for lawmakers”
BY
NORMAN J CLEMENT RPH., DDS, NORMAN L.CLEMENT PHARM-TECH, MALACHI F. MACKANDAL PHARMD, BELINDA BROWN-PARKER, IN THE SPIRIT OF JOSEPH SOLVO ESQ., IN THE SPIRIT OF REV. C.T. VIVIAN, JELANI ZIMBABWE CLEMENT, BS., MBA., WILLIE GUINYARD BS., JOSEPH WEBSTER MD., MBA, SHELLEY HIGHTOWER, BS., PHARMD., WALTER L. SMITH BA., JAY K. JOSHI MD., MBA, ADRIENNE EDMUNDSON, WALTER L. SMITH BS., LEROY BAYLOR, BS., MS., MS., IN THE SPIRIT OF BRAHM FISHER ESQ., BEVERLY PRINCE MD, FACS., CUDJOE WILDING BS, MARTIN NDJOU, BS., RPH., IN THE SPIRIT OF DEBRA LYNN SHEPHERD, BERES E. MUSCHETT, STRATEGIC ADVISORS
RICHARD LAWHERN, PH.D
Fact Sheet on Prescription Opioid Pain Relievers in the “Opioid Crisis”
Richard A Lawhern, PhD, Patient Advocate [Lawhern@hotmail.com]
Over-prescribing by doctors to their patients did not cause the “Opioid Crisis”
“Unlike tolerance and physical dependence, addiction is not a predictable result of opioid prescribing… Addiction occurs in only a small percentage of persons who are exposed to opioids — even among those with pre-existing vulnerabilities.” *
[*Nora Volkow MD, Director National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Thomas A McLellan PhD — NEMJ, 2016]
“We can no longer afford to view increasing drug-related mortality through a prescription opioid-myopic lens… A CDC Guideline only focused on “opioid prescribing” will perpetuate the fallacy that by restricting access to opioid analgesics, the nation’s overdose and death epidemic will end.” [AMA letter to Director CDC – Press Release, June 17, 2020]
There is no cause and effect relationship between prescribing and overdose mortality – But millions of patients are being denied safe and effective pain care.
Seniors over age 62 are prescribed opioids for pain three times more often than youth under age 19. But youth have overdose rates three times higher than seniors. No medical model can explain these demographics.
WHEN THE WASHINGTON POST SUPPORTS THE JUNK SCIENCE THE OTHERSIDE TRUTH MUST BE HEARD
Opinion | The U.S. is facing its worst addiction crisis ever. Biden must step up his response. – The Washington PostThe United States is facing its worst addiction crisis in history — far worse than it’s ever seen before. That’s the takeaway from a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund, which shows a …www.washingtonpost.com |
” The United States is facing its worst addiction crisis in history — far worse than it’s ever seen before. That’s the takeaway from a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund, which shows a massive increase in overdoses last year. Overall, overdose deaths last year likely surpassed 90,000. By contrast, 2019 — the previous worst year on record — had 70,630 deaths.”
THE OPIOPHOBIA AND WHY CDC GUIDELINES DO HARM AND CAUSE SUICIDE
Sally Satel is a psychiatrist, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a visiting professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has written:
“DOCTORS PRESSURED, PATIENTS SUFFER“
” The consequences of this new OPIOPHOBIA have fallen on the shoulders of patients experiencing acute or chronic pain, many of whom have found themselves abandoned by healthcare providers in the name of preventing opioid abuse and addiction.
Suicide is perhaps the most devastating consequence of the crackdown on opioid prescriptions. Case studies documented by physicians and personal tragedies memorialized on social media give the strong impression that poorly treated pain has pushed some patients into taking their own lives. Since 2011 Anne Fuqua, a retired nurse, and chronic pain patient, and Terri Lewis, a doctor of rehabilitation medicine with Southern Illinois University, has maintained a registry of people who took their own lives following physician-initiated changes or cuts in their doses.
To date, they have confirmed 584 suicides, the majority of which included people under age 59. About half were women, and almost all were white. Self-inflicted gunshot wounds were the most common cause of death, followed by hanging, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and jumping off a bridge. One veteran in New Jersey set himself on fire.”
DOSE TAPERING IGNORES CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS HUMANITY
Accordingly, dose tapering of chronic-pain patients with commercial health insurance and Medicare Advantage has increased substantially in recent years, and a quarter of those patients have had their doses tapered more quickly than medically recommended, according to a 2019 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. In 2017, a survey of 3,100 chronic-pain patients by the non-profit Pain News Network revealed that 71% could no longer obtain necessary opioid medication from a doctor or had to settle for a lower dose.
“SUICIDE IS PERHAPS THE MOST DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCE OF THE CRACKDOWN ON OPIOID PRESCRIPTIONS.”
Eight out of 10 said their pain and quality of life had worsened, and more than 40% said they had considered suicide as a way to end their suffering. Even some patients with sickle cell disease and terminal cancer — subgroups that the CDC explicitly excluded from the reach of the guideline — were not immune from painful dose reductions or complete cutoffs.”
CATO INSTITUTE DR.JEFFEREY SINGER MD PODCAST, JUNE 1, 2021
JEFF SINGER MD________
” POLITICIANS AND POLICEMAN SHOULD LEAVE THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE TO DOCTORS AND SCIENTIST”
Share with you, another of Dr. Jeff Singer’s podcasts on “Following the Science” is good advice for lawmakers”
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/follow-science-opioids
WRONG WASHINGTON POST
In 2019 NIH reported 70,630 drug overdose deaths, however, this number is oftentimes used misleadingly in order to move policymakers into passing troublesome drug laws. While 70, 630 drug overdose deaths did occur of which only 48,000 were opioid-related including both legal and illegal.
More importantly, less than 5% of deaths were attributed to persons who had been given and taking their prescription. While there is no evidence that has shown of any person succumbing to death when taking opioid medication at a therapeutic dose.
FOR NOW, YOU ARE WITHIN
THE NORMS
