Penalized for using medical marijuana by pain clinic

[passittome2]

I have a ton of Heath issues, hence the medical marijuana card. As if I was not having a
Hard enough time with pain as it is, my pain clinic pee tested me, which I
Thought was no big deal. So when I go in for my next appointment the MA
Says you failed your urine test from THC. I said well i have a card for that
So its not an illegal drug in my system. Long story short they said till I'm "clean"
they will not Prescribe any opiates for me ( which they had not even started yet).

Comments or help on where to turn would be appreciated.

2

 

[sky high]

Find a new clinic. My doc did this to me....but I was so fuckin sick of being addicted I simply waved my card in his face and told him to FUCK OFF.....and then made the conscious decision to get off the Keith Richards tour and get BACK INTO LIFE. The pills made my pain WORSE because my head wanted the narcs and my body had to have the narcs....Go figure. Definitely no way to live...and a sure way to live a shorter and more troubled life.

Bottom line...MMJ isn't "legal"....and doctors who prescribe narcos are VERY touchy about it because they don't want the DEA/etc. up their ass because of our weed smoking...

soon you may have to make a choice between the two.....sorry to say. Testing is becoming the norm....as you've seen.....and I think it will only get worse as time goes on.

Be prepared..if you are in a small town the doc may alert all of his doc friends you are out there looking for a script.... Yup. It's a racket....full on.

good luck

s h

 

[passittome2]

Tanks for the advice, called a new more progressive clinic today and they said no also. Get clean or forget any kind of help. I live just outside of Phoenix so there has to be a pain Dr here who gets it. This is total BS. If you google it, it's becoming a big problem for cardholders. I thought NORML would have some lawyers on it but could not find much except, the clinics have a right to refuse anyone, and it's NOT A DEA. Requirement that you be clean.

2

 

[passittome2]

Lots of lookers no help?

 

[kolah]

I just read an article about a similar scenario. Let me look through my files and I will get back to you tomorrow morning.

 

[fishwhistle]

I cant advise you but id stay away(far away)from any opiates or people who make money pushing them on you,If you can do it you will be better off,best of luck and i hope you recover and dont have to deal with the crooks anymore.

 

[passittome2]

I agree that opiates are a last resort, I'm going to one more clinic, then if they say the same thing, I guess I'll just keep smoking and suffer away. I'm not specifically looking for opiates, it just the next step in pain relief as far as I know. I been through the vicodins up as powerful as they go, Percocet makes me sick, so there ya go

Thanks for all your feedback
2

 

[squiggly]

I'm sorry to inform you--but due to lack of studies about drug interactions with THC, it is unethical for a physician to prescribe you medication while knowing that you have substances in your body which may react with the medication.

This is the ONLY way a physician can protect himself from a malpractice case. It is sad but true.

The culprit here is congressmen who fail to make MMJ an issue (most of them). The only way to circumvent this problem is to have the proper research done and FDA trials performed. Because the plant cannot be patented, and there is a moratorium in much of the country on cannabis research--these (very expensive) trials will have to be paid for by the federal government if they are to be done.

Until such a time comes to pass, it is unethical in every sense of the word for a physician to prescribe opiates, or anything but urgent life-or-death medicine for that matter.

It really sucks, and I'm sorry to hear how this is affecting you. It's terrible--but unfortunately your physician has his future to worry about, and congress isn't worried about your future as it regards this.

My advice: Find out the positions of anyone up for election in your area as it regards cannabis policy, and vote accordingly.

Aside from that, you'll have to make a choice as to which medication you prefer.

 

[squiggly]

I agree that opiates are a last resort, I'm going to one more clinic, then if they say the same thing, I guess I'll just keep smoking and suffer away. I'm not specifically looking for opiates, it just the next step in pain relief as far as I know. I been through the vicodins up as powerful as they go, Percocet makes me sick, so there ya go

Thanks for all your feedback
2

It may be worth mentioning that vicodin and percocet are BOTH opiates--you have already taken that step in pain relief.

 

[passittome2]

Well squiggly on a small scale your right, but they try to kill you with the ancetphyn (sp) I guess your right all around a small dose of morphine is still morphine

2

 

[squiggly]

Well squiggly on a small scale your right, but they try to kill you with the ancetphyn (sp) I guess your right all around a small dose of morphine is still morphine

2

Think you're looking for Acetaminophen (also known as Paracetamol). Yes, while that substance is a fever reducer and pain reliever (it works through the COX-2 pathway, but is not well understood), it is really only bundled with opiates to prevent abuse.

If you go over 1500mg of Acetaminophen (depending on your weight, but not by much) you will be doing liver damage to yourself. If you double that, you should start to projectile vomit or at the very least feel like boiled asshole (hence why this is the substance used).

Strangely enough, more deaths occur to acetaminophen by way of overdose each year than any other compound.

Little fun fact: This stuff is actually called N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamide.

Lemme break this one down for you:

The O== group with the additional tail to the right included (a methyl group) is called an acetyl group.

The combination of the litte NH on the right side there as well as the O== it is positioned next to (called a carbonyl group) is called an amide bond. (similarly, anything based around a Nitrogen atom is called an amine).

The ring structure on the left with the OH (hydroxy) group hanging off is called a phenyl ring.

Put these all together and you get AcetAminoPhen. Fun huh?

From the advanced chemical name, or IUPAC name--its actually not so scary as it looks.

N- this means everything after the dash is hooked up to a Nitrogen.

N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) This means a Nitrogen with 4-hydroxyphenyl ring hooked up to it (the 4 denotes the position of the hydroxy group on the ring).

N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamide Acetamide being outside the parenthesis tells us its hooked to the other side of the Nitrogen--acetamide is simply shorthand for an amide bond between a nitrogen and an acetyl group.

This ends your boring chemistry lesson no one read to the end for today.

TLDR
Yes. It is very intelligent to treat opiates as a last resort. I've lost more than a few friends to opiate addiction (most of them actually) and almost lost myself.

If/when you are at that last resort it is important that NO amount of opiate is a small amount. It is a serious thing every time you take an opiate. These chemicals do absolutely terrible things to your brain. They change you from within such that you are not aware of the change, no matter how cognizant or aware you are. Nasty, nasty, stuff. Fucks with the reward system in the brain--bad JuJu all around.

If I'm in your situation, I'm going weed every time.

 

[sky high]

If you can find a "pain management" clinic (aka "The Pusher" to us old guys) that will take you chances are you will be offered about the same things you've already tried. You probably already know that most of these pills are a combo of Oxycodone and an NSAID or hydrocodone and an NSAID. Squig could peg the difference for us between hydro and oxy....but they are both the same thing in the end in your system. it's like saying 'I drink vodka' or "I drink whiskey". Same shit. Same affect on your system...just a different "flavor"...

I can't gauge your pain.....nor will i diminish it. I know how badly it sucks to be in chronic pain.
I was also a full blown addict to these chemicals for about 5 years. Before that, i spent 5 more years "in training" to become an addict. All the while the drugs were taking ahold of me.
For a long time...I thought >>>>I<<<< was in control. However, I NOW know that I was seriously mistaken and...like squig said...that after that first script where I got 150 pills and started to dole them out to myself...the game was already over.

My advice would be to look inside yourself......to accept as much of that pain as you can.... and to start telling your brain that you can handle it....

which..if you think about it..is the opposite of what you are doing with the pills...which is merely GIVING IN and letting the pain tell you how things are. Your MIND is an incredibly strong tool if you give it proper direction....

good luck whatever you decide to do...

s h

 

[passittome2]

I fully appreciate all your information and feedback on the opiate issue. I also cannot stress enough how much some of you must have walked this path, from what you write. I finally started the pain center chase after 6 months of being up all night, bent over my bed rocking like a catatonic nut. I concluded that trying to live with this much pain was not really living as much as surviving.

Squiggly that's the word I was lookin for, they are killing our livers with it, and recently lowered the amount required in Vicodon due to the damages it has caused.

Unfortunately for me some of this is genetic and the rest is hard miles and being put away wet.

2

 

[sky high]

I started my "adventure" with the typical Vicodin/Percocet/Percodan/Lorcet/Norco fare...kinda in that order.....trying to minimize the exposure to the Tylenol/etc. for my liver's benefit and for the fact that it makes me nauseous until the opiates kick in. Feels like I'm getting punched in the gut. Some of the Vics have 625mg in each pill......and the Norcos were on the low end at 325mg in each pill. Even on those I was bottoming out after taking em.

I finally got the doc to give me Oxy "IR" (instant release, I believe..)......no tylenol/NSAID...just Oxy. This helped my stomach immensely...but it also made it easier to ingest more Oxy....
and from there....things got more and more crazy...

it's a vicious circle. Very vicious. The grip this lady has is incredibly strong. Stronger than any man....

best of luck in your quest.

s h

 

[azmmjadvocates]

This is a real emotional subject for me, Ive kept from getting referred to a pain doctor because I adjusted myself for tolerance, which is likely why you got referred to a pain specialist in the first place is to overt bad things from happening like squiggly was talking about with all the BS they put in with the opiates that will kill you.. The opiates don't have much of an effect on the organs it's just that people keep taking more and more to get the same relief. When you get to that stage a specialist needs to step in and give you the pure stuff and ramp you down, which is fought by the patient and that is usually when the abuse comes into play.

At that stage I lost my fiance, they prescribe you all kinds of other shit like Soma, benzodiazaprine for your nervs and it's a vicious cycle that can lead to death like what happened to my fiance. Even before her death she would be in a soma coma, died a couple times and came back. She had legitimate issues from a car accident a week after law school graduation.

I took a different path, I used percosette, vicoden, ect. but when I started turning to the pills to much and noticed taking more, I'd ramp myself down on my own. I'd take a script back to my Dr and tear it up in front of her, then get request some more at a lower quantity. Since I've been on MMJ I haven't had a pain pill in over a year.

2 years of epidurals they were magic however i'd always be a month short of being able to start the next series and I always thought the pain was getting worse, but actually I was getting use to more relief..

There is studdies that have been done lately that i'm sure you could find easily googling that show patients taking mmj and opiods through pain dr's use half the opiods and they work more effectively. however I'd just use it as a tool to cut the opiods down until your off all together,, I can say for sure, all that shit is death in a bottle. I have also won over my Dr's (MD'd) they say you can't argue with success, and I'm an example for you too, listen to sky, he's right.

What is getting me down is the thought of having to choose being an advocate or treating my pain with MMJ if Bill Montgomery, or Romney get their way. To be an advocate that isn't a target I have to go back to Opiods, If I disapear I can't be an advocate or I'll be a target.

 

[sky high]

Just to refresh the memory banks....many, many people had to advocate for MMJ before there was ever a State law >>>>anywhere<<< concerning MMJ...and those people just did what needed to be done, regardless. On a personal level, I had a garden while I was standing on the steps of the PO in my small town getting sigs to petition to get MMJ on the ballot here in 2000 and nobody came to my house to see if I was growing/etc.

While I certainly don't want anyone to be held back....I personally feel that people need to network and advocate to others in small settings/out of the public eye

IMO..... All of the parading and posturing with commercial grows and weed shops on Main street is too much/has been FAR too transparent and has moved >>too fast<< for most folks and is, (IMO) the cause for the backlash Romney/others illustrate.

good luck to all of us....

s h

 

[passittome2]

Well again I thank you all for the words of wisdom and encouragement. I have most likely failed in all your eyes as I did proceed with visit to a follow up clinc who after a two hour medical record review, decided to treat me.

All I can say is "quality of life" of which I now have a little. Is it an illusion yeah, but I was able to sleep last night, and walk my dogs this morning. I'm nicer to be around cause I'm not grinding my teeth into dust, I can actually lay still and think without my body wrestling with itself.

I was told from my reports that I do have some liver damage, my guess would be from the (squiggly) ancedaphetamin. Which my GP should have been all over.

anyway life's better and thanks again

2

 

[sky high]

Everyone walks their own path.

I would be lying to say I don't miss the narcos....especially when I can't sleep.

But I'll certainly live longer without them. Pain and all.

good luck staying ahead of the curve. It's a game in itself to be "milkin'...to keep from running out..." (reference to Neil's song "Needle and the Damage Done")

s h

 

[soserthc1]

Find a new clinic. My doc did this to me....but I was so fuckin sick of being addicted I simply waved my card in his face and told him to FUCK OFF.....and then made the conscious decision to get off the Keith Richards tour and get BACK INTO LIFE. The pills made my pain WORSE because my head wanted the narcs and my body had to have the narcs....Go figure. Definitely no way to liworkedve...and a sure way to live a shorter and more troubled life.

Bottom line...MMJ isn't "legal"....and doctors who prescribe narcos are VERY touchy about it because they don't want the DEA/etc. up their ass because of our weed smoking...

soon you may have to make a choice between the two.....sorry to say. Testing is becoming the norm....as you've seen.....and I think it will only get worse as time goes on.

Be prepared..if you are in a small town the doc may alert all of his doc friends you are out there looking for a script.... Yup. It's a racket....full on.

good luck

s h

could not agree with this statement more , its totally the truth , I have been thru the same situation and have been opiate clean for three years , now and actually have less pain now , Once your body needs the pain meds you are in a far worse place in your life, I am so glad that I don't need a pill, patch etc just to function anymore ..... try suboxone worked wonders for me, just don't stay on it to long , slowly reduce your dose and then stop... withdraw will be there but no where as bad as roxi's or oc's and you will feel so much better.... well at least IMHO....... Peace soser..............."a little part of it in everyone one , melt blood to keep from running out"

 

[soserthc1]

Everyone walks their own path.

I would be lying to say I don't miss the narcos....especially when I can't sleep.

But I'll certainly live longer without them. Pain and all.

good luck staying ahead of the curve. It's a game in itself to be "milkin'...to keep from running out..." (reference to Neil's song "Needle and the Damage Done")

s h

Damn Sky as I read this you are discribing my life bro.... Rarely sleep but actually enjoy my early morning and my time awake .....much much better than depending on a pill.... hell i was eating 100micro fent patches daily - three days worth of med being eatin at once , much better world without rx pain meds ..... and its a racket to... could tell you 5 doc that just rush patient's in and out the door all day ... no insurance allowed cash only ... such a scam and i'm not even talking florida here ........thats a whole dif story