Once upon a time (pre-1914), Americans had been allowed to obtain any drug or medicine they chose without authorization from any other individual or government agency. Only you were responsible for the substances that you ingested into your body - opium, cocaine, or the most recent patent medicine. Somewhere along the line we must have become too thick to act on our doctor's guidance in our own best interests.
Many years ago when Peace Corps Volunteers served in South Korea (me among them),
one could buy all legal drugs from the local pharmacy - no prescription needed..
If you had a terrible cough, you might remedy it with codeine cough medicine. A little bottle ran about $.80. Speed was obtainable from roughly 6 cents a pill. I never bought them, but they were there if I needed them.
All Korean drugstores were off-limits to U.S. Military Personnel. I guess soldiers are expected to suck it up and endure the pain.
No where in the U.S. Constitution do I find a right for the federal government to interfere in doctor-patient relationships. Yet they do. Like the licensing of physicians, this right - if it exists at all - should be exercised at the state level.
The Act provides:
"Chap 1. - An Act To provide for the registration of, with collectors of internal revenue, and to impose a special tax on all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes."
Even though technically permissible for private use at that time, some physicians who prescribed opiates to addicts were arrested and imprisoned because addiction was not legally a "disease" a health care provider could treat in "the course of his professional practice."
Compared to other countries, medical professionals inside the U.S. are hesitant to prescribe opiates and other restricted pain medication - even when they know their patients would benefit.
Treatment for terminal cancer patients including liquid heroin has been available in England, but even that government is pushing for methadone instead.
Unfortunately, in a effort to arrest and jail drug users, the US denies the world's best pain medications to citizens in need of pain relief.
In my mind, pain management is more medical art than medical science. If we were truly free citizens and not subjects of government force, we could consult with our physicians and choose any medications or treatment plans we wanted.
Pain treatment clinics come in various forms:
- individual pain centers owned by MDs- separate departments in hospitals and large medical facilities- chiropractors- acupuncturists- physical therapists- psychiatrists/psychologists
Alternatives:
- so-called "pill mills" where prescriptions are readily available- yoga- hypnosis- medical marijuana
Chronic pain focused in one area of the body might be cared for more successfully via one type of chronic pain center than another. Chiropractors, for instance, are a normal stop for people with chronic back pain. But back pain is complicated, and may possibly require your general practitioner, physical therapy, or even acupuncture.
Key types of pain consist of:
- cancer- arthritis- sciatica- back- neck- leg- foot- headache
Pain management is further complicated by insurance companies. Health insurance restricts most pain relief to pharmaceuticals prescribed by their plan physicians.
Anticipate paying your own way. Most pain management clinics do not accept insurance.
"No More Pain" Clinics is a new site developed to examine alternative remedies available for chronic pain.
Tags: pain management centers,pain centers,sciatica,chronic pain centers,chiropractors,acupuncture
