Part of the problem is the government, and believe it or not there are people out there who are lobbying for more government control. I got into a huge debate over on another site (weather site, strangely) with a woman who was lobbying for tougher government control and monitoring of schedule drugs.
Long story short, her son was out with friends, who had Rx narcs on them. They were stopped by the police for something routine and panicked. So all the guys in the car swallowed the pills. The cops let them go and they went to grab a hot dog before going home. Well that night the narcs kicked in with some of their usual side effects of nausea, but the kid had taken enough to suppress his gag reflex and chocked to death on hios vomit. Sad story and I would be angry as a parent that I lost my kid over some stupid circumstance. But this woman is hell bent on nobody getting narcs who aren't supposed to have them.
The problem is that people will still abuse narcotics no matter what is done, and the people who suffer, as we have seen here, are people who legitimately need pain control. Every state is different in their Prescription Monitoring Program, and you can research yours online. The fear docs have is that they will get flagged for writing too many scripts for controlled substances. The PMP programs are designed to monitor people who are "doctor shopping" ie. those who go to 2 or 2 docs and get multiple scripts of the same thing. They are also looking for those docs who supply seekers with their narcs. And I think there lies the problem, some docs just don't believe in aggressive pain management, but I think some are just afraid to get flagged. A friend of mine, who is a dentist, let his DEA number drop (apparently they have to renew it after a number of years). I think he did so because he didn't prescribe enough narcotics to justify going through the process. I will ask him though about the process and whether or not he ever felt that he was being watched by "big brother."
Unfortunately, the flaw with this problem is that if you present to the emergency department they have to treat you based on your chief complaint. Seekers know this, and frequently abuse the emergency system. So, they are still getting their fix, and they are bogging down the system with necessary stuff making those with legit problems wait in the process.
In my mind these programs do not solve any problems, rather they create more. Frankly, I'd rather see them put my tax dollars into programs to help people break addiction to narcotics than simply identify them and prevent them from getting prescriptions. Those who are marked as seekers and are unable to get multiple prescriptions filled will likely just switch to heroin anyway.
I am sorry that you're having trouble getting the relief you need, hopefully I've at least explained a little about why. A pain clinic might be the way to go, but you need a doc to write you a script for those as well.
Long story short, her son was out with friends, who had Rx narcs on them. They were stopped by the police for something routine and panicked. So all the guys in the car swallowed the pills. The cops let them go and they went to grab a hot dog before going home. Well that night the narcs kicked in with some of their usual side effects of nausea, but the kid had taken enough to suppress his gag reflex and chocked to death on hios vomit. Sad story and I would be angry as a parent that I lost my kid over some stupid circumstance. But this woman is hell bent on nobody getting narcs who aren't supposed to have them.
The problem is that people will still abuse narcotics no matter what is done, and the people who suffer, as we have seen here, are people who legitimately need pain control. Every state is different in their Prescription Monitoring Program, and you can research yours online. The fear docs have is that they will get flagged for writing too many scripts for controlled substances. The PMP programs are designed to monitor people who are "doctor shopping" ie. those who go to 2 or 2 docs and get multiple scripts of the same thing. They are also looking for those docs who supply seekers with their narcs. And I think there lies the problem, some docs just don't believe in aggressive pain management, but I think some are just afraid to get flagged. A friend of mine, who is a dentist, let his DEA number drop (apparently they have to renew it after a number of years). I think he did so because he didn't prescribe enough narcotics to justify going through the process. I will ask him though about the process and whether or not he ever felt that he was being watched by "big brother."
Unfortunately, the flaw with this problem is that if you present to the emergency department they have to treat you based on your chief complaint. Seekers know this, and frequently abuse the emergency system. So, they are still getting their fix, and they are bogging down the system with necessary stuff making those with legit problems wait in the process.
In my mind these programs do not solve any problems, rather they create more. Frankly, I'd rather see them put my tax dollars into programs to help people break addiction to narcotics than simply identify them and prevent them from getting prescriptions. Those who are marked as seekers and are unable to get multiple prescriptions filled will likely just switch to heroin anyway.
I am sorry that you're having trouble getting the relief you need, hopefully I've at least explained a little about why. A pain clinic might be the way to go, but you need a doc to write you a script for those as well.