October 6, 2024
Hydrocodone.
It’s something prescribed along with OxyCodone to millions of Americans whom have had surgery like me recently.
I didn’t take the hydrocodone pills prescribed to me. Just ibuprofen. You know why?
“[Fentanyl] Users first got hooked by pain pills saturating the nation, then turned to cheaper and more readily available street drugs after law enforcement crackdowns, public outcry and changes in how the medical community views prescribing opioids to treat pain.” Steven Rich and David Ovalle, “Overdoses Soared Even as Prescription Pain Pills Plunged”, Washington Post (Sep. 12,2023).
Let me say this in laymen’s terms. Ordinary people like you and me, get a hydrocodone prescription because of a legitimate surgery or chronic pain, get hooked, eventually can’t get their fix from the doctors/pharma any longer…and turn to heroin and fentanyl.
Let me say this in even simpler terms. Walk down south Broadway in Wichita, Kansas and if you meet a guy or gal turning some tricks, I guarantee they don’t want the money for weed. They want it for heroin and/or fentanyl.
So, what really sticks in my craw? Kansas — where I can easily get my hydrocodone fix, but where a plant (marijuana) that is widely known to help people with chronic pain, is illegal.
How stupid, ignorant and irrational.
See you next Sunday.
— TKG
