The odd thing is that when he goes to jail, they'll give him his meds just to quiet him. I read about this once. A person couldn't get the meds he needed, so he got them illegally, got convicted, got sentenced and now he's in jail and he gets what he needs. ONLY HE IS IN JAIL!!!

How stupid is that??? Well, let me tell you how stupid that is. I live in Brooklyn, there is a kid who lives not too far from me, who has been a delinquent most of his life. He was 17, pulled a knife on five people one day, robbed them and ran away. He and his friend. The victims all went to the police, hopped in the police car, made chase and tracked him down. He was ID'd and everything.

He is now in jail (where they put the 17 year olds), He goes to school, etc. His case comes up on April 17. Last night his father told me "it's up to the judge, he might get 1 year or he might get probabion". I boldly said "What do you mean he might get probation, he put a knife to the stomachs of 5 people who then pressed charges, so what do you mean he might get probation"??? The dad said "well, in his case, he has one thing in his favor (oh by the way, he stole his aunt's car to get away, and the police will not release the car because it's evidence, so the father bought the aunt another car". The dad then said to me "they might try him as a youthful offender". I said "you're son has not been a youthful offender in 10 years and you know this". He sadly shook his head and said "yeah, but he's sorry and he absolutely hates being in jail" I said "you think he learned his lesson"? The father said "Let me tell you something, if my son catches a break from the judge, and gets probation, he'll come home, and the probation officer will ring our doorbell and test his urine whenever they want to test him.

I said "but he won't go to jail and he put a knife to 5 people????" I just looked at him. He said "yeah, I know, he did a bad thing". I couldn't say anything because it's this guy's son and blood is blood.

But think about it. They jail a guy who is in chronic pain and takes pain meds out of necessity. THEY PUT HIM IN JAIL!!!!!. And then we have a 17 year old son of a "you know what", who has been in and out of trouble his entire life, and he goes and puts a knife to 5 people who jumped in a police car (they also have surveillance footage of him doing the crime. I mean they have him dead to rights here AND HE MIGHT GET PROBATION BECAUSE HE'S 17 YEARS OLD.

Give me a break. I hope they lock this kid up for 10 years. He's dangerous and we all know it. He once broke my front door by jamming the lock.

I wish the govenor or the judge would listen to the faxes and re-review this poor guys fate. Doesn't bode well for others who have chronic pain.

Not at all!!!

mel

I also hope that this type of thing hastens the day when enough people are aware of the damage the so-called war on drugs is doing, here and in other countries the U.S. affects.

I hope many more people in the U.S. will tell all of their government representatives that ending the current war on drugs and replacing it with responsible policy is one of the main issues on which future votes will be based. When one studies this issue it becomes clear that every other issue is affected negatively: health and healthcare, safety, justice, environment, finance, education, parental and government credibility, etc.

rose

Dahlek,
Your links are great thanks for the heads up - both articles are well worth a slow read particularly the AARP piece. It's a very sad commentary when physicians are afraid to prescribe narcotic pain killers for fear of repercussions, losing their license or even jail time because of the "laws of the land".

Fortunately, my neurologist is an old school doc who told me he used any and all means available to him to provide pain relief for his patients - up to and including narcotics - his opinion - if prescribed and used properly the danger of abuse and addiction is minimal vs the potential for pain relief. I may find out sooner rather than later since no combo has worked yet.

Now completely off the subject but truly absurd, the Mexican authorities just raided a posh residence suspected to be a meth lab - their 1st clue was 19Tons of pseudoephedrine, the precursor to methamphetamine, awaiting delivery to the residence. More importantly however, was the stash the authorities uncovered, no less than 2 1/4 Tons, that's right Tons of $100 bills, calculates out to ~$205.6M dollars.
Want to take bets on how much jail time these people serve as opposed to the 25yrs Richard Paey is serving in FL - makes you wonder sometimes.

Thanks again for the links - took my mind off the pain for a little while
Ever longer pain free times to you
Alkymst