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Feds’ rules keep me in pain

 

I want to thank the Drug Enforcement Administration for making it utterly impossible for any pharmacy or pain-management clinic to fill valid scripts anymore. Not a pharmacy in Broward County can supply those of us who legitimately require pain relief in order to function.

The feds have terrorized clinics, pharmacies, their distributors and even hospitals.

Do they think that everyone in South Florida is having a good time with oxycodone or any other opioids? I’m not. In fact, thanks to their overzealousness, I’ve been unable to work or, for the most part, even leave the house for two weeks, with no end in sight. I’m weak as a kitten and have little appetite, lost about 15 pounds and had little help from the medical community because it is terrified, too. I have scripts, but no one can fill them.

How many hundreds or thousands of people — cancer patients, accident victims, back injuries, etc. — have been harmed? I’m not ever going back on these strong painkillers and might even get by without them, but I should not have had to go cold turkey.

The drug war has always been a bust. Concentrate on dealers of the stronger prescription drugs, but leave legitimate clinics, pharmacies, hospitals — and especially those in pain — alone.

Ben Arnold, Tamarac

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