A robust discussion on the state of chronic pain was held this week on a podcast hosted by Dr. Drew.

Claudia Merandi, the founder of the Don’t Punish Pain Rallies, Dr. Dan Laird who has been a powerful voice for the chronic pain patient and Dr. Vanila Singh who chaired the HHS Task Force that released the Interagency Pain Task Force Report were interviewed.

Merandi made the case that it’s a “dire situation” for pain patients—Laird talked about the serious access problems—which Dr. Drew challenged saying he isn’t seeing it in Southern California—and Dr. Singh, who was interviewed separately, warned that many doctors who feel stigmatized and often are afraid to speak out.

Laird emphasized that the chronic pain patients are saying “enough is enough” and believes that a significant patient’s right movement— “the largest in history,” he said—is developing.

We highly recommend that you watch the podcast—which runs a little more than an hour– and let us know what you think.

Laird congratulated the tireless work of chronic pain patients as having made dialogue with Dr. Drew possible.

As he tweeted, “I’m looking forward to making point that CPPs have lost critical access to care & are subjected to malicious bullying by certain anti-opioid crusaders. He made the point repeatedly.

Merandi has taken to Twitter and is contacting the Tamron Hall Show trying to get interested in doing a story like the podcast that Dr. Drew conducted.

Dr. Singh made the case there are 50 million people with chronic daily pain and 19.6 million with high impact #pain. “We need to treat folks with an individualized patient-centered approach, non-stigmatizing – #noonesizefitsall -need to understand that “pain” doesn’t describe the multitudes of painful conditions.

It was a good discussion and had something in it for everyone. It also points out the need for more of these types of interaction.

Kudos to Claudia Merandi, Dan Laird and Dr. Vanila Singh for giving the chronic pain patient point of view.

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