Chronic-pain community speaks out against efforts to deny long-term pain relief

Statesman Journal

Thanks for the USA Today article in your July 3 edition, “Pain Patients Suffer in War on Opioids.”

After reams of hysterical misinformation that dumps legitimate patients into the same barrel with drug addicts and abusers, hopefully the media is starting to see our plight, the injustice, and the human-rights abuses endured by the chronic pain community.

Yes, addiction is a dire problem and needs solving. But ours is a separate issue.

Now is a time of special danger for Oregonians with chronic pain.

During the last legislative session, lawmakers nearly approved a balanced opioid task force – its members to include a doctor specializing in pain, a chronic pain patient, an ACLU member, etc.

Instead, that measure was chopped in favor of the governor’s opioid task force, which seats several avowed opio-phobes, and no pain voices whatsoever.

In addition, OHA is on the brink of abandoning effective, long-term pain relief for non-cancer patients. This is a cruel and irresponsible usurpation of our doctors’ roles, and amounts to torture, plain and simple.

We hope to see more coverage of our side of this complex story. We have protests and rallies upcoming here in Salem. We hope to see you there.

Joseph Gramer

Salem

