Now I am curious, since this is what is wrong with me (among other things), and I have done the Vioxx, the steroid shots, even an RF lesioning (microwaving of a nerve to partially sever it, interrupting pain signals, but still allowing enough nerve feedback for muscles to keep functioning.)

So what condition is it going to take to be properly and consistently treated with opiates, if that should be your choice, as a free consenting adult in a free country who pays your doctor royally for his/her services?

Because traditionally you'd hear about people with back and leg pain being treated with OxyContin, Palladone, MST-Continus, and the like.
And they were mostly content, functional, and productive on those medications, or even because of them.

And with a recent spike in media attention, 99 per cent negative, and mostly siding with drug-prohibitionist attitudes (and citing drugwar platitutes - how poetic ..LOL), suddenly millions upon millions are totally, well...out of luck.
Thank you - NewsSpeak magazine...!

They're now being shovelled Vioxx and Neurontin

, and told to pray the rosary (not that there is a thing wrong with that, but I do not accept that as an Rx for MY pain) or just think positive thoughts. So it's a giant leap backwards in the field of pain treatment, a trend that's only recent to begin with.

Dang it we were just on the right track, until, say 1995 or so! The heavies (narcotics) were just being made available as viable treatment options, and snap! Newsweek and two consecutive anti-drug presidents (see, I am non-partisan!) just HAVE to ruin it for millions of unfortunate souls.

It's fine to get drunk and medicate pain that way, even though that particular intoxicant is so damaging, yet these benevolent opioids are the scapegoat of a world gone wild with lust for power with a bug up its collective @$$ about drug-prohibition. Where's Bill Hicks when we need him...?

I hereby want to congratulate myself on post # CC (200)!

Red