Editor:

Shame on you south Platte sentinel for spreading government propaganda. Shame on you Alexis Sinn Hunter for your faulty reporting. Do your job and investigate!

I’m referring to your two part opioid article. I read the first half, noting you mention the deaths going up and refer to opioid use disorder. I saw the word heroin used once in part one, and that was used to compare and vilify anyone in chronic pain.

The leading cause of death is from illicit fentanyl. Since 2012, prescriptions have been at an all time low and still decreasing, yet deaths continue to skyrocket! Why? Because as long as you focus on blaming people in pain you will never fix the opioid epidemic which is an illicit fentanyl epidemic.

I read the second part and it is all about www.haveyoumetmat.com. So I go to the webpage. Once again, I find the only mention of illicit drugs is to compare a person in pain to a heroin addict. By the way, you can get these great coasters at your liquor store for meetmat as well!! No conflict of interest there with alcohol being the No. 2 killer in the USA with 88,000 deaths a year per cdc. Deaths from prescriptions are literally 14,600. Deaths from NSAIDs is 16,000 with 100,0000 a year hospitalizated with gi problems. Smoking, the kills about 240,000 a year. Where’s the real epidemic here?

There are millions in intractable chronic pain from injuries, illnesses, etc. with no help because of CDC guidelines that have been proven to be intentionally misleading. You can find all this on the cdc.gov site or even a simple google search.

Suicide is up 50 percent in vets and 30 percent for those in chronic pain due to lack of treatment!

People in pain are being stigmatized. Would you ask a diabetic how long they’ve been on insulin? Worried they’re insulin use dependent?

People with chronic pain have exhausted every avenue before going on opioids for pain management. Many things we are forced to try hurt us worse and most are not FDA approved. In chronic pain, we live lives in pain levels of 7/8 everyday nonstop. And the government now says stay in that pain?? Buerocrats are making healthcare decisions with no medical knowledge.

All this thanks to psychologist Andrew Kolodny, who has never worked on the body.

In Indian cultures they would inflict this type of pain hoping for a vision, many died. Is this the new America?

Let doctors do their job! What happened to common sense?

Bree Wilson

Advocate for chronic pain sufferers