Thread by @OldHeadFighta

To all members of the New Hampshire General Court, House & Senate members, as a Patient Advocate here in the state serving your constituents I ask, please take a minute to read this thread.

@NHHouseDems @NHHouseGOP @NHSenateDems @NHGOPSenate @NHDHHSPIO @NHMedSociety #nhpolitics

You all recently received a mailer from an organization named “Prevent Opioid Abuse” (.org), an organization which receives support and donations from many well known anti opioid zealot groups, groups who have been revealed as having many unreported conflicts of interest.

Conflicts of interest that include earning hundreds of thousands $$$ acting as “expert witnesses”, experts on the use of opioid analgesics to help in the managing of pain, when these “experts” have never worked with a single patient who suffered with an incurable pain condition.

As you might imagine the Prevent Opioid Abuse organization has access to many sources of funding such that mailers similar to the one you received are sent to every State Senator and State Representative in every state in the country.

As an unpaid Patient Advocate who works closely with physicians and patients here in the Granite State my only option for trying to communicate a single message to all of you is a Twitter thread, and a plea to please take a minute to read the thread. Did you know…

…that there hasn’t been a single drug overdose death in New Hampshire, as reported by the state medical examiner’s office, which was attributed to a patient’s use of an opioid medication prescribed to them? Did you know…

…that the rate of addiction across the U.S. for patients who have been prescribed an opioid for the management of acute pain such as post-op, kidney stone, appendicitis, injury (compound fracture of the femur), run at less than 1%? Did you know…

…the rate of addiction across the U.S. for patients who suffer with diagnosed, documented, incurable and very painful lifelong conditions such as CRPS, Adhesive Arachnoiditis, Sickle Cell Disease, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome etc run at a rate of anywhere between 1-4% ? Did you know…

…all patients on opioid medication therapy to help with these painful, incurable lifelong conditions must sign a CONTRACT that states they must go to the office any time they are called by the clinician & provide a urine sample onsite for the purpose of testing? Did you know…

…all patients on opioid medication therapy to help with managing these painful incurable lifelong conditions must sign a CONTRACT that states they must go to the office any time they are called by the clinician to have their prescription pills counted? Did you know…

…all patients on opioid medication therapy to help with managing these painful incurable lifelong conditions must sign a CONTRACT that states they can only use a single pharmacy for filling these prescriptions. If they use a different pharmacy it is a RED FLAG! Did you know…

…that almost all patients on opioid medication therapy to help with managing these painful incurable lifelong conditions are required to be at monthly clinician appointments during which random urine drug tests and prescription pill counts can be required? Did you know…

…that almost all patients on opioid medication therapy to help with managing these painful incurable lifelong conditions are not allowed to use medical marijuana even if it helps to reduce their need for opioid medication? Did you know…

…that many patients on opioid medication therapy to help with managing these painful incurable lifelong conditions are denied their prescriptions when they go to the pharmacist? Pharmacists often maintain that the patients doctor is wrong. Did you know…

…that many patients on opioid medication therapy for these painful incurable conditions are denied their prescriptions at the pharmacy for many subjective reasons? A Bedford NH pharmacist denied one woman because with her tattoos she “looked like an addict”. Did you know…

…I was recently called to advocate for a patient who was dismissed from a pain mgt practice after she was found to be ONE PILL short on a pill count! She was also forced to leave her pocketbook & jacket outside a bathroom, on the floor, in a hallway, while she peed in a cup!

So think about this. If your grandmother or grandfather was suffering with a painful condition that only a small amount of opioid pain medication would help with, they would be required to sign a similar CONTRACT stating they must go to the office and pee in a cup when required.

Your grandparent would not be allowed to shop at different pharmacies for better medication pricing no matter how little their social security paid because their CONTRACT states they can only go to the CVS down the street!

And when your grandparent receives a prescription in New Hampshire it would have a large ORANGE sticker on the cap with the word OPIOIDS on the cap for all to see! Your grandparent, leaving the Manchester Rite Aid on McGregor St with a large ORANGE sticker saying OPIOIDS? Why?

All these regulations, state & federal laws, CDC “guidelines”, for chronically ill patients who addict at a rate of NO MORE THAN 1-4%? Why? And 90 plus % of all overdoses are caused by illicit drugs and illegal drug use, NOT patients using the medication prescribed to them! Why?

Great question - WHY? Please, as legislators in the state of New Hampshire I beg you, PLEASE ask WHY? Keep pressing for hard data. PLEASE make people commit, on the record, that they have NO conflicts of interest. PLEASE…

…ask the NH medical examiner’s office to tell you how many overdose deaths there were with NO illicit drugs in toxicology results. And of the small number remaining, ask how many had a prescription for the medication. The answer will be 0 because patients have not OD’d & died

Last tweet in this thread, I promise. Right now there is a patient in a New Hampshire hospital suffering in pain following invasive surgery. Patient is getting IV Tylenol only & being told they’re exaggerating their pain, that this is all for their own good. Why? The backlash 🤷🏼‍♂️