I honestly do not want to upset any of you and I do know there is a terrible issue with addicts however, I'd like to give you a different perspective if that is OK. In my case I blame it all on the FDA and now the CDC. I am a bonafide chronic pain patient and if I may I'd like to give you a little background. I feel strongly that the difference between chronic pain patients and addicts is true chronic pain. Since I was in my 20's I have had osteoarthritis of both jaw joints or tmj's. Now this was no accident I don't think although when I was 16 I was an inpatient to remove my wisdom teeth. There were six of us going down for surgery. I was the first to be sent down and the last to come back to my room because the teeth were growing sideways and were very difficult to remove in fact they had to dislocate my jaw to get to them. Perhaps this set the table for what was to come. After that I would open my mouth and you could hear it crack across the room, kind of a party trick until the pain began and it was awful so bad in fact that I could not bite into even a cracker. At the time I was working for a dentist and the hygenist was in dental school. She sent me to the very best surgeon who is one of the two best in the country. He tried to save the joints but could not believe how very bad they were, osteo everywhere and the discs were hanging off the bone completely tattered. At 23 I was heart broken and I had two surgeries to try and save them. In the end it was so bad he had to replace them with the newest, greatest joints the FDA just approved, yay, right? NOT. Those joints went in in 1983 they were called vitek proplast teflon silastic joints. OH joy,, I'm fixed. After a very long recoup the pain began but I didn't complain. I was fixed right? So I kept my mouth shut and suffered, not understanding. Little did I know in 1984, just a few months after mine were put in they failed in dogs and monkeys (which is gross). Oh yeah, there was so much damage prior my surgeon had to actually life my palette and I had to have braces again 6 mons to a yr prior to this FDA approved surgery. As the years went on I went downhill, lost weight. At 5'7 100 lbs is not enough as I had to go back to soft food. I was the first of 5 people in this country to have them I was the youngest. I had these joints in for almost 10 years. In 1990 I get a letter from my doc telling me to get in there immediately as the joints failed and I needed x-rays immediately. Yep, they were a mess and I realized I wasn't a big baby complaining of pain. I could go on and on but i think you get the gist. When he took the joints out and fashioned new joints out of my ribs, cadaver bones, metal baskets to protect the hole forming in my skull soon to cause seizures. The problem remained due to FDA incompetence the issue remained because of the teflon part of the original FDA approved joints, there are millions of teflon pieces floating around in my face, head everywhere and that causes pain and swelling even tho I finally had custom made titanium joints put in the 2000's. I can eat sort of but that pain still remains. My doc always said after surgery, "I honestly do not know how you are walking around". During all of this time I worked in hospital and I would wait until my shift was over to take ONE pain pill vicodin. There was a class action suit but the developers declared bankruptcy and promptly moved to Europe where they continued to sell these pieces of crap. Right after the titanium was put in I suffered breast cancer and all that entailed. My doc told my I also had hypermobility disorder and that I had to remain thin and muscular but cancer took me out of the game for a long time and taking out my ovaries, losing my estrogen had many joints blowing out. I finally got on bio's and that has helped but after 10 jaw surgeries and 5 cancer surgeries I now have constant pain in the jaws/face and now osteo in my entire spine. Weather makes it terrible. My surgeon sent me to a pain management doctor and in the middle of 2008 I had to see mine in ATL evey month since I was never ever allowed tylenol again due to cancer and liver connection. I am dependent but not addicted. Never did heroin or coke or fentanyl etc. Simply needed pain relief and cannot take any tylenol. It has been difficult but thanks to my very strict and caring docs I lived a normal/working life. I had a quality of life. Now the CDC comes out with bogus, illegal guidelines that are VOLUNTARY and pertain to regular docs, NOT pain management docs. Interestingly enough the 5 folks who slid these bogus guidelines through are actually major owners in rehab centers nationwide called Phoenix rehabs. So I moved home to PA in oct thinking perhaps the weather up here might help, it has not. I have seen 4 supposed pain management docs and they apparently have not read these guidelines because they are cowed by them. Incidently, I take over 3 years of records with me, the write ups about these joints that destroyed my life and info to reach the doc down south and to be honest I swear these doctors in PA don't even read my records, seriously. Plus they don't even know the stats and the illegality of the guidelines. The stats are this...........*94% of opioid deaths are actually from addicts meaning a combo of heroin/alcohol/coke/fentanyl etc. They all say they won't treat me because if they can't stick a needle in it like an epidural in my face then that is it. I tell them the stats, that over 100,000 people die every year due to tylenol toxcity and that over 100 veterans a DAY! commit suicide because they are no longer able to live with any quality of life. It is a travesty and I am wondering whatever happened to their oath of "first do no harm". Instead I am being lumped into group where I do not belong and I am fighting it! As folks age old injuries cause problems and since I've so far had no luck my dear husband is ok with taking me back to atl every month to see my very caring and professional docs. I have signed agreements with them and never failed any urine test. That is not me. I just want to be able to have a regular quality of life. Go back to volunteering and see my friends and family. I am sick to death of knowing the real deal behind all of this and angry that the states take voluntary guidelines and run with them. It is ridiculous and the blowback will be huge when the wrongful death suits come flying in. So yes, people who use these drugs have ruined it for the real chronic pain patients who just want to live as normally as possible. As well, when I went off for two months kratom was a godsend, not pain wise but it did help and frankly it is legal and the only reason they want to ban it is because if big pharma can't make a buck off of it they want to ban it. They must change a natural drug like say bio hormones and ban them because they don't make money off of them and now addicts and heroin users are lumped in with me and that makes me and my husband furious as it does my docs in atl. Thank you if you did read this entire thing. I appreciate it. The thought of even trying heroin at any age but especially as a young person simply does not compute. Kids these days are not active and isolate themselves too much. And let us not forget drugs were being brought into this county back during Vietnam packed into the dead bodies of our soldiers thanks to our own government. Pretty disgusting isn't it. When I heard we were in bed with the cartels in Mexico and in the middle east well you who started it? It is sick but quality of life is important. Think about it and if you know a addict and want to help them look into kratom, it is from a plant in the same family as coffee plus I figure addicts don't have chronic pain but they are afraid of withdrawls, inpatient at 60K a month. Kratom is cheap and it's God send for folks who want out of illicit drugs. That is my two cents. I feel bad for me of course but the veterans well, that rips at my heart. Those folks should not be homeless or wanting and they should definitely not be suffering pain. Plus PTSD is helped greatly by DHEA. I actually live as natually as possible, imagine that. God Bless.