Pain

There is a madness to the idea that preventing people from becoming addicts is somehow more important than relieving people of obscene pain. For one, we're only alive for a very short time, so I really don't see why pretending to be martyrs because we're as miserable as possible, and feeling that anyone will give a shit about our martyrdom in an afterlife, is somehow preferable to living a normal life that is somewhat pain-free. For another, I don't think people understand that there is a threshold of pain that becomes all-consuming; ie you're not just dealing with "oh, my knee hurts," you're also dealing with not being able to sleep, not being able to think about anything else, and not being able to live a normal life.  Such pain is overwhelming, and swallows a fucking life. - XMASTIME

There STILL  seems to be a debate that keeping patients from become addicted to drugs takes precedence over their being able to live through their massive pain.  This is absurd to me.  As you know, I've dealt with pain so excruciating it's led to thoughts of suicide; meanwhile, I'm fairly sure there's plenty of people out there who would laugh at the pain I've suffered through.

Yes, maybe someone will get addicted to the medicine.  But is this any worse than anyone being made to live a life of absolute misery, wherein one can no longer be productive at all?  Why is the stigma of  "addict" more demonizing than "suicidal and unproductive"?

Again, we're not talking about pain that is annoying; we're talking about pain that is all-consuming and incapacitating.  I've dealt with pain that took up my mind 24/7 and precluded me from being able to sit on a toilet - we're talking about people relieved to be able to function, not people laughing at you as they go to Disneyland every week.  For fuck's sake.  Life is short.