Pain Patients Cry For Help Amid Opioid Crisis

By Dominick Ferrara

Photos by Jamie Krantz

Grapic by Katherine Ozturk

Melissa Adams lives with chronic pain. The two folds in her pancreas never fused together. She passes a kidney stone every six months. She had appendicitis for more than a decade after doctors misdiagnosed her pain as a swollen fallopian tube. These conditions cause her to frequently visit the hospital for care.

Earlier this year, Adams fell down a flight of 15 stairs after her blood pressure dipped. When she arrived at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, a doctor refused to treat her because he believed she was exhibiting drug-seeking behavior. Her IV was taken out, and Adams was told to leave without receiving any care or medication.

Adams passed out in the parking lot. Only then would the hospital agree to care for her.

“You go into the ER, and then they’re like, ‘You’re just here to get pain medicine,’” said Adams’ husband, David. “She fell down stairs. She’s in pain. She’s not there to get a 30-day prescription or something. She’s there to get medicine while she’s there.”

Adams’ inability to get medication has her living in pain and constantly taking ibuprofen in an effort to avoid seeing a doctor, fearing that another visit will have her labeled as a drug addict.

“I’m not suicidal,” Adams said. “But there are moments where I think to myself that I would be better off dead because it hurts so bad.”

Adams’ story is a familiar one for people in pain, who feel that recent regulations against opioid prescriptions is preventing them from receiving the medical care they need. 



A promotional image for the upcoming Don’t Punish Pain Rally on May 13, 2021 at Brandeis University. 

In 2016, opioid prescriptions hit an all-time high in the United States, with doctors writing more than 214 million prescriptions. That year, the CDC introduced new guidelines for prescribing opioids, which have contributed to a drastic decline in prescriptions. Just more than 153 million opioid prescriptions were written in the U.S. in 2019. 

Yet, the number of opioid-related overdose deaths has spiked. Nearly 50,000 Americans died from an opioid-related overdose in 2019, more than any other year on record.

The number of overdoses involving prescription opioids has significantly decreased since the CDC’s guidelines were introduced, while illicit fentanyl has become the greatest cause of overdoses.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the medical director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, says that deaths traced back to illicit drugs are also connected to prescription opioids.

“The main reason you want more cautious prescribing is so that less Americans will become opioid-addicted,” Kolodny said. “Many of the people who are dying from overdoses involving illicit opioids, their whole opioid addiction began taking prescription opioids. And of course, there are millions of pain patients stuck on long-term opioids who never should have been put on opioids.”

Further complicating the matter is the lack of proven therapies for chronic pain and the addictive qualities of opioids, which have never been convincingly proven as an effective long-term treatment for chronic pain.

“People still rely on the idea that medicines have to be the answer,” said Dr. Paul Chelminski, a professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Even though we know the irony of becoming more restrictive in opioid prescribing, our mindset is still on the drugs rather than having a more expansive view of what the possibilities are for treating chronic pain.”

Chelminski says the opioid crisis has made it more difficult for doctors to look at pain patients without thinking about the harms of opioids.

“To some degree, we are unable to take a fresh look at people as they come in,” Chelminski said. “It’s like getting a pure jury pool. How do you separate your preexisting knowledge of the situation from the necessities of an individual? We’re struggling with that.”

Patients say that doctors are afraid they will lose their medical licenses and practices if they overprescribe.

“It’s always a good choice to be very fearful and to not prescribe opioids unless you absolutely have to, because if the DEA comes for you, they suspend your registration if your practice is prescribing a lot of controlled substances, which some specialties of medicine do,” said Jennifer D. Oliva, director of the Center for Health and Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall University, said. “You can lose your life, you can lose your livelihood and you can be criminally prosecuted. Those are pretty serious motives.”

Kolodny does not believe that fear of the DEA is driving the decrease in opioid prescriptions.

“What’s driving the change of practice is that the medical community is starting to get it,” Kolodny said. “I think we have a long way to go. But I think the reason prescribing is trending in a more cautious direction is the medical community is slowly but surely figuring out we’ve made a terrible mistake.”

Not only has Adams been declined care at the hospital, but her private doctor has told her that he cannot prescribe her pain medicine because of an algorithm that identified her as someone at a high risk of overdosing on opioids.

That algorithm is known as NarxCare, a product developed by Appriss Health which uses data from states’ prescription drug management systems to provide doctors with a risk score, telling them whether patients may be prone to misusing opioid-based pain medications. 

The data used to calculate the score includes the number of prescribers, the number of pharmacies patients use, dosages and the number of overlapping days of prescriptions. Appriss does not disclose how each element is weighted.

Vivek Parwani, the medical director of the adult emergency department at Yale New Haven Hospital, said in an Appriss-sponsored case study that NarxCare has had a bigger impact than any other tool in his emergency room in terms of fighting the opioid crisis. 

“NarxCare has helped us combat the opiate epidemic by quickly and easily viewing patients’ controlled substance history, detecting abuse earlier, and allowing doctors to intervene in those cases,” Parwani said in the case study.

But people in pain say that doctors are relying too heavily on this risk score in making care decisions, preventing patients like Adams from receiving treatment.

“There’s no context allowed in our care,” said Bev Schechtman, a member of the advocacy group Don’t Punish Pain Rally. “What if you move? What if your doctor retires? What if your pharmacy doesn’t have it, and they send you somewhere else? Right there, you’re flagged, and there’s no room for that context. In these scores, it just looks like you’re doctor shopping. It looks like you’re pharmacy shopping. It looks like you’re playing games.”


Bev Schechtman is a member of the advocacy group Don’t Punish Pain Rally. She lives in Clayton, North Carolina with her family and 2-year-old dog Griffin, who has become an unofficial emotional support animal during times of pain.


Kay Sanford, an adjunct professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and a pain patient who created North Carolina’s Controlled Substance Reporting System, is worried about overreliance on these algorithms.

“I’m terrified, because if that becomes the only tool with which a physician judges whether or not a patient should be treated with a recognizably challenging drug, then we have done a disastrous disservice to the patient community and we are actually not using the (drug management systems) as they were designed to be used,” Sanford said.

At the same time, she appreciates the need for tools for more cautious prescribing, as she has accidentally overdosed on prescribed opioids in the past.

“If epidemiologists who are well-trained can make a mistake, anyone can make a mistake,” Sanford said.

“Pharmacists and physicians use these scores as indicators or calls-to-action to further review details in the patient’s prescription history in conjunction with other relevant patient health information as they attend to the patients,” Appriss Health said in a statement. “The analysis and associated scores are not intended to work as sole determinants of a patient’s risk. Appriss Health advises its customers and clinician users that the purpose of NarxCare and the PDMP are to support their clinical decisions, not displace them.”

But prescribing decisions are not the only medical choices influenced by NarxCare risk scores. Pain patients can also be turned away from their practices because of their score.

Elizabeth, a Michigan woman who spoke with UNC Media Hub on the condition of being identified only by her first name, was dismissed from her OB-GYN’s practice because of her NarxCare score. 

The practice wrote in a letter that they were concerned about the quality of health care they could provide for her despite the fact she has never regularly taken opioids. Doctors have since told her they will not take on new patients who can only be treated by medication. She still has not found a replacement. 

Before receiving the letter, Elizabeth had never heard of NarxCare or its risk score, like many of the medical experts interviewed or emailed for this story, who knew little about it despite Appriss’ partnerships with several states. Chelminski Googled it while talking with a reporter, after which he said the tool would not be very useful for his practice. 

The general lack of knowledge about NarxCare led Kolodny to wonder if perhaps patients are making more of NarxCare than it is. Pain patients question Kolodny’s credibility because he was paid between $300,000 and $500,000 to testify against Johnson & Johnson in a 2019 case which led to the company paying $572 million to the state of Oklahoma for its role in the opioid crisis.

Others, however, don’t think people are talking enough about NarxCare. Oliva writes in her upcoming paper, “Dosing Discrimination,” that NarxCare scores are not only based on PDMP data, but also criminal and sexual trauma records. Oliva says this disproportionately affects Black patients and women.

“We’re going to see a lot of discrimination against really particular vulnerable groups that already have layers of other discrimination against them in both the criminal justice and healthcare systems,” Oliva said. “That’s my true concern. People are not going to get treated for pain.”

Appriss denied using criminal records and sexual trauma data in a statement.

But no matter what goes into calculating each patient’s NarxCare score, the risk score follows them around, making them afraid to seek treatment whenever they feel pain. 

“I felt like I was being punished all over again for something that happened to me that wasn’t my fault,” Schechtman said. “It feels horrible. Most of us probably have a form of PTSD from medical trauma at this point where you get scared to go to the pharmacy, you get scared to go to the doctor, you get scared if you have a problem. You’re terrified to go to the hospital. It’s a horrible situation. It’s scary.”

Schechtman and Griffin


Dominick Ferrara

Dominick Ferrara is a senior from Fuquay-Varina, N.C., majoring in journalism and minoring in global cinema. He currently works as a senior writer for The Daily Tar Heel’s arts and culture desk, a social media intern for Film Fest 919 and a program assistant for UNC Sport Programs. He plans to be a sports or entertainment reporter after graduation.

18 Comments
  1. Notice how dismissive Kolodny is about every subject. He either knows the truth and is setting up plausible deniability or he simply doesn’t care and sticks to his narrative that’s making him a very rich man. He made over half million dollars as “expert witness” in Oklahoma opioid litigation trial. He is on board of Shatterproof, Steven Rummler’s Hope Network fund’s PROP’s and he works at Brandeis University.

  2. Such a great article. After a dance career, after 3 car accidents & chronic illness, my doctor tells me he can no longer prescribe the pain killer in the dose that works for me. I’m a senior, and the answer is: it’s too bad, but you have to suffer.

  3. I have a story to tell as well and I am A RN so I seen the opioid crisis as a patient and a nurse. It’s horrible.

  4. The real problem is illicit fentanyl which comes from Mexico and China.

    Most people with chronic pain did not start out on pain pills. They’ve tried PT, acupuncture, pool therapy and a host of other things that did not work. Which is why they ended up on medication. Nothing else worked!

    How can Kolodny be an expert when he’s never seen or examined any patients? How can he know so much about pain if he’s never experienced it? Why is he founder of PROP and getting paid to testify in court? Isn’t that a conflict of intetest? It’s okay for him to push his product but he needs people off pain meds to sell it. Don’t you people see this?

    There are literally millions of people suffering at this very moment bc of smug people like Kolodny. He and Jane Ballentine need to step back and let real doctors do their work. I promise, they don’t need your help!

    For the love of God, give the patients back their medicine. They weren’t hurting anyone!

    1. People who are in treatment because of injuries, disease, and related wear and tear, are carefully monitored by their doctors. Why are they lumped into the category of addicts? Kolodny has a purpose: generating more patients for his opiate addiction treatments. The CDC who wrote the 2016 guidelines has already stated that they made mistakes, some of which occured under Kolodny et. Al. Influence. There should be clarification of the guidelines soon.

      The typical pain patient has medically documented reasons to be prescribed opiates as they are the most effective. People I know who have these treatments take them according to their prescriptions. They are not sneaking pills in an upward fashion. Most are very responsible. Their treatment allows them a higher quality of life. Their inflammation is reduced, their sleep improved, their lives more normal. For many, no treatment means quality of life is lost. They are not addicts. They do not “get high”. They are not chronically pushing their medication doses upward. They are seeing doctors regularly and having the necessary diagnostic and medical procedures deemed necessary.

      So why the angst about addiction? There were fewer prescriptions written because some were “let go” by nervous doctors who did not even care to do a medical withdrawal. But the bigger story is that opiate abuse i.e. street fentanyl, etc went higher. Some doctors were wrongfully raided by the DEA.

      Treating pain has been around for at least a century. It has surely done more good than harm. When scores like Narx are done…why monitor? Isn’t that in the doctor-patient domain? I believe it is not necessary . Already we have insurance records hanging over our shoulders. Why more?

      Let doctors do their jobs. And let pain patients seek relief from medically indicated disorders.

  5. Andrew Kolondy is absolutely nuts! I just cannot believe his way of thinking.

  6. I am also a victim. My pain medication was tapered. I suffer with chronic pancreatitis.
    Now I have an implantation pain pump. ( A different pain doctor). I’m finally getting the help I needed.
    But I still fight for those other pain patients who are miserable with pain.
    Bram

  7. Thank you for the report. The problem is treating pain has limitation and most of the problem who get hooked on opiate are our young and not those older people who tend to have chronic pain. But instead of keeping patient who are not addicts and take there medication responsiblLynn most of us have been cut off and then when we seek relief we are called a addict. Once a chronic pain patient gets on the right dose of opiates they can be on that dose for years. But laying in bed because of the pain is the worse thing you can do for it and chronic pain is a huge stressor on the body and does kill the person. Meanwhile a study was done in Massachusetts where they took everyone who died of opiates and compared if they had gotten a prescription with in the past 5 years. The percent was that something like 2% did. This is a big country and 70,000 deaths with 55,000 due to street drugs is upsetting but there are 100 million chronic pain patient. Meanwhile we have 350,000 people who die from air pollution. Also opiates are on of the safest drug long term on the organs while NSAIDS eat you stomach and cause heart damage. Every medication has risked and if you take a hand full of pills it does not matter if over the counter drugs or prescription it is going to cause issues. Again instead of seeing people as individuals we try to limb everyone together and if in pain and a women you are overly emotional and a drug seeker. I am a service connected Veteran who is 100% and I have tried everything they have to offer but they refuse to give opiate to chronic pain patient so I get to pay $300.00 a month for my medication and without the medication I have no way to even get food. I am a single women with not children and the VA helps with nothing. Meanwhile the number on reason for suicide for Veterans is chronic pain that is not being treated. But us chronic pain patient are seen as a burden and we are because now many of our left with nothing. We have lost husband who have had enough of dealing with someone in pain, we have lost jobs, careers and dreams. The life totally sucks and we do our best to smile and pretend when we are good when we are not. Meanwhile I will be buying a gun when it get to much which is something I never thought of. Finally drug abuse is not about the drug but is a mental illness that people use to escape life and then take it to that is all they want to do. If addict just stop they tend to go to another drug so just taking the drug away does not hurt. Meanwhile Dr Kolodny is not a pain specialist but a addiction specialist that has been spend 20 year pushing Suboxone for everyone. This guy’s everyone should be on Suboxone instead of morphine even though they are both opiate and suboxone is showing up in more overdoses then ever. Basically doctor are very afraid of getting there licensed taken and some state took the guideline and made even more restrictive law on opiate to make it almost impossible to even get pain medication after major surgery. It has gotten so bad that they are giving people IV tylenol after major surgery and telling them they can give them nothing else. Word of warning if you need surgery then talk about pain control after surgery. If the doctor say he never gives opiates run out the door because sometime the doctor screws up and the pain us worse then expected. We had better pain control in the 1980’s. The problem is huge and totally preventable yet no one give a crap that are doctor are torturing people during there care.

  8. Dr.Andrew Kolondy hasn’t seen any pain patients. He has been on the addiction side he saw a chance to make money. He has only profited from this Opoids crisis.He has hurt thousands of chronic pain patients. He continues to profit on the pain of chronic pain patients.

  9. Dr. Kolodny is a psychiatrist and the founder of PROP (Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing). Kolodny is a senior scientist and medical director at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He’s the darling of many anti-opioid groups. PROP was involved in the process of working on the 2016 CDC Guidelines for Opioid Prescribing. The evidence for many of the suggestions in the Guidlines was rated “very low quality”.  Kolodny is known as the “Suboxone  prophet” and the “Suboxone evangelist”. All the following quotes are actually things said by Andrew J. Kolodny.

    Poughkeepsie Journal – 2014
    “Are we better off with that young opioid-addicted person using oxycodone than buying heroin on the street? I would say we’re better off them buying heroin on the street.”
    [Note: The DEA put out a nationwide alert on March 18, 2015 warning that illegal non-prescription fentanyl was in the heroin supply. In many cases, there was no more heroin, only the illegal and much more deadly fentanyl. Oxycodone is a measured and unadulterated medication. But when pills are sold on the streets, they are often pill-pressed illegal fentanylogues that mimic the looks of various prescription medications. Heroin and non-prescription street fentanyl are killing these “young opioid-addicted” people.]

    NY Times-2016
    “When there’s really dangerous heroin on the streets, I’d rather see Suboxone out there, even if it is being prescribed irresponsibly or is being sold by drug dealers,” he said.
    [Note: Quote from an article about diversion and misuse of Suboxone by addicts. This is exactly what Kolodny and his cohorts at PROP say was done by doctors and pain patients. Yet here he is promoting these very same behaviors. Suboxone, Subutex, Butrans, Belbuca — these are all Buprenorphine based opioids and can cause overdose and death.]

    BuzzFeed News, 2018
    “Unfortunately though, the genie is out of the bottle,” Kolodny added. “Millions of Americans are now struggling with opioid addiction. Unless we do a better job of increasing access to effective treatment, …overdose deaths will remain at record high levels and we’ll have to wait for this generation to die off before the crisis comes to an end.”[Note:  Kolodny doesn’t mention which generation will have to “die off” before this manufactured crisis can end. Does he mean the largely senior generation that is prescribed most pain medication? Or does he mean the generation that is overdosing on illegal non-prescription fentanyl/heroin from the streets? This generation is largely young males in their twenties and thirties.]

  10. Thank you, Domenick Ferrara. You’ve written a fair and balanced article on the plight of pain patients.. Appreciate that you said it’s illicit fentanyl causing the overdoses and deaths. We are grateful to read the work of someone who knows the truth and speaks it. So many in the media just follow the same tired and false story of the “accidental addict”. You shouid be proud for presenting such a true and moving piece. Again, thank you.

  11. What most of these anti opiate zealots,like Kolondy,don’t mention is that the alternatives don’t work for many especially with severe pain. Many of us have also been harmed by alternatives like NSAIDS, Tylenol and steroids. They also don’t mention that untreated and under treated pain kills (eventually). We are dying from heart attacks, strokes, endocrine and organ failure, suicide and OD from desperation. Doctors aren’t helping their patients. They say their hands are tied. 38 years of pain for me. 20 years with opiates and decent functioning. 5 years ago I was lowered and lost all function. I’m home bound, don’t see my kids or grandkids,clean house,cook,garden,shower once a week and no longer have sex with my husband of 25 years. I’ve done all alternatives and use the things I was taught but still suffer. I broke 2 vertebrae and have osteopenia from steroids and stomach problems from NSAIDs. I now have high blood pressure and cholesterol. Dr. Kolondy is paid for his opinion and advises on the treatment of pain yet he’s not a pain specialist and only worked in addiction for a while. In my opinion he’s out of touch with the reality of pain, addiction and the damage that he has helped cause. Since the restrictions on RX the deaths from OD have risen to extremes. They have sent drug users and pain patients alike to more dangerous drugs. And the CDC isn’t tracking the deaths of pain patients or the negative outcomes from their policy. They look at lower RX rates and pat themselves on the back, ignoring the deaths and suffering it has caused. Maybe the intent was to get rid of us.

  12. Why in every article about pain pt being denied treatment is Andrew Kolodny interviewed . This man is not an expert on pain treatment . He’s never taken care of or treated pain pts . He is anti opioid and a conflict of interest in everything pain related and opioids. He bases his research off personal opioions rather then scientific data, true facts or true research. He continuously insist we are addicts when we are not .He believes thatv as ll addicts start oyt on adfictions due too opioid prescribed pain meds which is simply not scientifically true or correct . Many factors play into pt becoming addicted to any substance. It is not the pills or substance suppose itself that addicts and as for a so called expert. who suppose to be knowledgeable in addiction you would think he would know this. Also so called expert witness at opioid med trials that is an absolute injustice to the defendents as he is very biased to all pain med opioids .Except when it comes to suboxone which is also an opioid, funny this he makes money off of . What a conflict of interest . Yet states keep paying him half a million to testify why is this I wonder . Hidden agenda I presume!! He wants to believe doctors are prescribing less because the guidelines work which is simply not true. The doctors are prescribing less becsuse of fear of false prosecution by the DEA / DOJ just for not following guidelines even though they say not law yet their being prosecuted for this. For not following guideliness or accused of over prescribing which their is no laws set by the FDA on what is considered over or under prescribing. Funny so how then are dr prosecuted for this . Again I wonder . DEA /DOJ bases so called over prescribing ok of their own personal opioions rather then on actual law. They have no knowledge in tx of debilitating
    pain or why pt prescribed at all or at the doses they are precribed or for prescribing higher then the MMED which is another false and baseless number that has no scientific research or backing. Because all pts metabolize meds differently and what works for one may not work for another . The guidelines , Andrew Kolodny (PROP) and Narc care score are preventing legitimate pts from receiving the care they need, require, and deserve . Yes many pts are left with medical PTSD( fearful when needing to go to the ER, pain dr or phatmacy ( For example I just fell as a debilitating intractable chronic pain pt with leg CRPS and neuropathy down a flight of cealor steps . I could have broken my neck or my back . I was brusied from midback down too my tailbone . I could barely walk for days in excruciating pain aggravated by the fall . My shoulder was also black and blue clear down my arm and scapula . I had a hug hematoma on my lower leg and hx of hip repirs x3 in each and I was bruised on my left hip . where I could have damaged these hip prosthetics or my pelvis . I have also hx of left knee ACL/MCL Repair my knee was severly black and blue. Years ago this would have been treated as a trauma ( I’m a disabled inpatient surgery nurse who also worked ER and ortho/ trauma , and ISCU when needed ) This would have been a serious fall . If in horrific pain when they brought you in ER pt woul have been given an IV and pain meds then given a trauma workup meaning xrays, mri or cat scan , blood work ect. possibly if nof on meds already given small script and told to f/u with primary dr and depending on any injuries f/u with ortho or neurology if serious injuries addmitted . Sadly today many pts like me would have been dismissed in care due to narc care, guidelines ( treated as a drug seeker , denied any pain treament sent home told to f/ u with primary dr told to take tylenol or Ibuprofen ) .and people like Andrew Kolodny input anti opioid input We may not have even seeked care at the ER at all suffering at home instead where serious injuries may have bern missed and pts injuries could have cost them their lives . but DUE To medical PTSD many would refuse to go to ER myself included even though my husband insisted I refused didnt . want to be treated lie a drug seeker . Evertime I go to pain appt i have anxiety and fear that is this the day the doctor says I must decrease your meds or stop prescribing has already happened too me. My one wonderful educated doctor she just stopped working in this field and my other dr stopped prescribing all together due to YES FEAR OF DEA ANDREW KOLODNY WHO SAID THIS WASN’T THE CASE !! So now my narcare score probdbly flags me probably as a high tidkk due to different doctors but only one prescribes my meds but due too freq changes in doctors even though no mot my fault. I we would be flagged which is simply not right or fair. Their system of algorithms is flawed and has many errors with no room for exceptions . Also since when did iit becomd a crime or bad to choose the best doctors and ability to find out who is the best by going and checking out if these dr fit your care needs . Evertime I call to fill my meds I’m fearful they wil get someone new who will question why I take what I do and the doses I due even though their not that high and if they think I need them . Doctor knows what he is prescribing most pain dr especially those doing it for 10 plus years . Or that the med isnt available .Because again if i have to fil at another
    pharmacy then again I am flagged on the Narxcare . So what I just suffer if their out of my and go into dangerous withdrawls till the meds become availbale . because fearful of increasing my narx care score .This is happening all over . and they absolutly punish those with trauma and sexual assalt or criminal records. They give a higher risk score then those who dont have these records that too me is profiling which is exactly what Andrew Kolodny is doing and this is ilegal in united states . STOP STIGMATIZING AND PROFILING. get back to honest individualized pt focused care . yes pain treament requires a modality of things not just meds or opioids nobody said it didnt but opioids must or most often be a part of millions of pts treatments especially those 20 million or more like me with intractable high impact excruciating debilitating chronic pain !! noncancerous pain same as cancerous use the same pain pathways . The pts themselves determines what were works and what doesnt . We are the ones suffeting this horrific pain everyday . Tired of anti opioid people like Andrew Kolodny, Doctors Jane Balentyne and chou who use personal opioions rather then scientific true research and facts or studies. Everyone says their is no studies or scientific evidence if opioids effective for long tetm pain tx FOR THE 100TH TIME WE THE PTS ARE YOUR FACTS YOUR STUDIES the ones on stabje opioids for 10 , 20 , 30+ years we are your study we say yes effective !! they allow a quality of life and tolerable pain without these meds quality of life diminishes millions unable to no longer work , get oob ,become isolated , depressed and alone how is that good for pts pain , mental state , and our economy ITS NOT !!! So I’d say were all the facts you need but qw we are dismissed and ignored. WE ARE THE FORGOTTEN ONES IN THIS SO CALLED CRISIS. counterfeit street pain med / illicit fentanyl / street drug crisis. STOP BLAMING!! prohibition!! never worked many more will suffer and die by suicide or on the streets seeking relief not a high but relief . and addiction and overdoses will continie to skyrocket . STOP LISTENING TO PEOPLE LIKE KOLODNY PROP WHO SPREADS CONTROVERSIAL PROPAGANDA AND LIES . HE IS NO EXPERT. We don’t work with nor are any groups affiliated by pharmaceutical industry . We ars simply pts in debilitating pain or caregivers of those in debilitating excruciating intractable chronic pain. we are mothers , fathers , grandmothers , grandfathers, sisters , brothers , and children , we ard veterans ,cancer pts and eldetly all fighting for our God given human right to individualized treatment and care without stigmatizing or judgement based off actual physical assesment not biases or formed judgement or use of biases like cdc guidelines , DEA /DOJ, political influences for money and greed like ANDREW KOLODNY and PROP ( WANTS EVERYONE ON SUBOXONE FOR PROFIT ) and false and very flawed algorithm type systems like Narxcare .STOP !! and treat the pt based on your own knowledge and education before very serious medical conditions overlooked and pt suffers horrifically or is left in torcherous pain . Or worse dies because of this while suffering torcherous pain.

  13. Check STATS on cause of Death of Chronic Pain Sufferers. Leading cause of Death of Fibromyalgia patients, that Suffer Great Chronic Pain, is SUICIDE & NOT from Opioid overdoses.
    I belong to DON’T PUNISH PAIN RALLY NATIONAL FaceBook Group with other Chronic Pain Suffers for multiple other illnesses. These Sufferers also have lots of Suicidal Ideations & have admitted to Suicide Attempts. I’m pretty sure these Chronic Pain Sufferers are also committing Suicides because we have had our Opioid pain meds Cut Off & Denied Quality of Life. Our pain is so bad, we can no longer do everyday tasks without severe pain. I can’t even walk very far without a Walker, have a Handicapped Placard, use Electric Cart when grocery shopping. This leaves us with lots of pain just sitting around doing nothing but watching TV. I recommend to other Chronic Pain Sufferers to get a Dog or Cat if they don’t already have a pet. My Little Girl HONEY keeps me going & cheers me up even when I’m in pain. The only pain relief I’ve found is KRATOM herbal supplement & tell others in pain to try KRATOM. It doesn’t take all my pain away, but helps lessen the pain to more tolerable.

  14. When I read people have an end of life plan in place because of chronic pain and no one is helping them, or afraid to, it reminds one of a communist country and run society. It’s disgusting. People with proven, documented pain issues are being held accountable for the criminal elements. Drug seeking behavior? YES , because no one will help them . If one does the dance requirements by pain management clinics with documentation, that is all that should be required for medication. People are dying to get relief, possibly from drug dealers if nothing else

  15. Once again Dr Kolondy has it ALL wrong. It also wasn’t mentioned that he is being paid to push pain patients on Suboxone. He is making alot of money off of the situation. Please do your research on his back ground before giving him yet another platform to spread his lies. He isn’t even an expert on pain treatment, he’s a psychiatrist who treat drug addicts, whom he puts on suboxone (an opiod by the way).
    Please check the facts before your publish.
    Check out the Don’t Punish the Pain Patients on Facebook, Claudia Merandi has alot of knowledge about this topic and
    a rally on May 13th will be at Brandis University where Dr Kolodny is earning $500,000 to testify againt Johnson and Johnson.

  16. Bev I’ve watched you on videos with Claudia,I’m a member of DPPR and a few other organizations for Chroinc pain patients.I try to get on and support and spread what is really going on out here with Fauci being ahead of the CDC and I’ve done some research and found where Baric PhD was with Fauci in creating a bacteria/ virus with SARS back in 2003-2006,,and as you probably already know Fauci goes back as far as 1970 or earlier involved in vaccines seeing more autism children,will continue to support this Great cause,we must fight back..and yeah to Robert F.Kennedy Jr…he fights as best he can to help us..

  17. It’s definitely a SAD time for Healthcare, in particular the mistreatment (or complete LACK thereof) for folks SUFFERING from Chronic pain. People being force tapered or completely abandoned by their Healthcare providers, solely based upon an arbitrary scoring system derived from data mining of Pt’s personal/ private electronic medical records. HIPPA is a mere joke in this scenario.
    NO longer is Quality of Life or functionality factored into the risk/benefit of Pt’s needing LTOT in order for them to get out of bed, shower, get dressed, prepare a meal or perform any other necessary ADL task.
    Influential, corrupt & paid anti-opioid zealots, like PROP members Andrew Kolodny & Roger Chou, are making $ Millions $ off the torturous agonizing suffering of 10’s of millions of #CPP’s. All the while the govt plays along in support of the false narrative & looks the other way as the media overhyped ‘Opiate Crisis’ continues unabated, due to illicit Fentanyl pouring into our country. The DOJ/ DEA only focusing their efforts @ raiding the Dr’s who are still compassionately trying to help the sick, disabled & Vet’s.
    It’s blatantly obvious an AGENDA exists ‘against’ those, who thru no fault of their own, are afflicted with constant chronic, unrelenting PAIN, aka #CPPGenocide!