Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2005 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Linda Paey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

PAIN RELIEF AND PUNISHMENT

Re: Drug war punishes the victims of chronic pain, July 20.

My husband is innocent of the crime that has sent him to prison for 25 
years. Yet these long days in prison do not compare to the years he lost to 
pain. For the 10 years prior to the day he had the morphine pump surgically 
implanted in his body, Rich suffered with pain, and with every treatment 
that attempted to find relief came a roller coaster of hope and 
disappointment, a bright future never realized.

Yet neither prison nor pain compares to what happens to a person when the 
medical establishment and the public believe you are a slacker, a drug 
abuser or an addict. Opiates are the Vietnam of medical treatments: People 
can never be proud that they found pain relief.

Our society must do more to lift the veil of suspicion which we lay on all 
people like Rich who are taking his medication for a legitimate medical 
condition and should not have to live in shame because it works.

- -- Linda Paey, O.D., Hudson 
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MAP posted-by: Beth