Speaking to the NC Legislature

Today I had my five minutes of fame – I spoke at a meeting of the North Carolina Joint Legislative Health Care Oversight Committee in Raleigh, NC. They are discussing ways to reduce prescription pain medicine abuse and diversion. So far they had only heard about the huge problem and how TOO many people are getting TOO many pills and SO many people are becoming addicts. (Notice the use of too and so – not real numbers.)

I added a different side to the issue – the voice of a person with pain who is not addicted and has never gotten high, but does use an opioid to get some relief from pain.

Fighting nerves and dry mouth, and speaking at the very end of a long meeting, I’m still happy. After the meeting, one representative told me, “It took guts to get up there and speak that message. Thank you.” So, I guess it was worth it.

Now, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and see if they took my message to heart. I said, “We must not decrease access to appropriate pain treatments or compromise people’s right to privacy without due cause. Please don’t allow people with pain to become the casualties in this war on drugs.”