Pain And Prevarication, The Truth About The Illegal Drug Epidemic

Posted by PP~ on Wednesday, September 25, 2019

By: Passionate Pachyderms

I apologize for this taking me as long as it has. Due to my illness and overall medical conditions, it often takes me a great deal longer to accomplish these things then I would like, but I’m getting there.

I’ve managed to complete parts 1 and 2, and hope to be completing the other 3 parts within the next few weeks. Thanks for being patient, I hope you all feel it was worth the wait.

In this series of 5 streams I will be covering several things in

depth all of which are of great importance to those who suffer

chronic pain, their loved ones, those treating chronic pain

patients, and those who recognize that they too are but

one illness one accident away from becoming a CPP, and that

becoming a CPP isn’t something one plans, it happens in a

moment often when you least expect it.

You might see your doctor for a nagging ache somewhere, and

after all the tests are done, he informs you that you’ve got one of

over two hundred diseases and conditions which are incurable,

untreatable, life altering, or some times fatal.

Or perhaps, in the blink of an eye you are involved in a freak

accident, a car accident, fall victim to a failed or botched surgery

or medical procedure which has left you suffering excruciating

pain that you can not escape.

The kind of Pain that isn’t eased by tie chi, yoga, exercise, bio

feedback, meditation, distraction, acupuncture, Tylenol, Motrin,

anti inflammatory drugs, Advil, anti seizure medications,

chiropractic adjustments, Physical Therapy, non FDA approved

injections into your spine and or neck, nerve burning, additional

surgeries, psychiatric drugs never meant for the treatment of

pain, cannabis, Kratom, CBD oil, prayer, or “learning to live with

it.”

President Trump recently went on CNBC and spoke about the

“Opioid Epidemic”. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/watch-trump-speaks-on-opioid-epidemic-announces-state-local-grants.html

I’m coming out to speak on the same subject matter in hopes he

will by some Miracle find himself watching this live stream, and if

he doesn’t, I want to say it on behalf of myself, and all of the

others his misguided “War on Drugs” is catastrophically harming.

Here is a hint, There are far more Americans who are NOT

addicts that have been/are being hurt by his and our

governments actions than there are addicts period, let alone

addicts who have been helped in any way by their actions.

As I’ve reported in my earlier live streams on this subject matter,

our country, spends nearly 40 BILLION dollars on drug rehab

each year, Rehab that fails 90 to 95 percent of the time, and yet

our government continues to believe throwing more and more of

our hard earned money at this problem is the answer.

IN WHAT CRAZY UTOPIAN DREAM WORLD DOES IT MAKE

SENSE TO CONTINUE THROWING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AT

A SUPPOSED SOLUTION TO THE DRUG ADDICTION

PROBLEM? A PROBLEM WHICH AFFECTS ONLY 2.1 million

Americans (according to the drug addiction center of America)

AND FAILS 90 TO 95 PERCENT OF THE TIME?

Why not use some of that money to develop addiction treatment

that actually works?

While I am giving you all statistical numbers, keep in mind that

more than 100 million Americans suffer chronic pain daily enough

to affect their work/life activities on a regular basis.

More than 16.5 million suffer severe/Intractable chronic pain bad

enough to require daily pain medication to help control it, and

offer them some ability to function in their activities of daily living.

(Activities of daily living include, getting out of bed, taking a shower, getting dressed, and feeding themselves.)

Now, it doesn’t take a Rocket scientist to figure out that if we

have 2.1 million addicts in this country, and more than 16.5

million severe/intractable chronic pain patients in need of pain

medication daily just to live, it seems to me, we have a much

bigger inadequately treated/untreated chronic pain epidemic in

America then we do a drug addiction epidemic.

That said, Common sense would tell us that we should be

spending 8 times more on the adequate appropriate treatment of

chronic intractable pain than we are on addiction, and yet, this

simply isn’t the case.

In fact, despite there being 8 times more Americans suffering

chronic pain severe enough to require daily pain medications to

treat it, our government is actively engaged in making it nearly

impossible for those suffering intractable pain to be adequately

or appropriately treated, and those who are able to find doctors

willing to treat them at all, find that in most cases, those doctors

refuse to prescribe pain medications in doses adequate to

effectively control their pain.

The CDC’s official definition of an epidemic is: “The occurrence

of more cases of disease than expected in a given area or among

a specific group of people over a particular period of time.”

However, drug addiction in our country has in fact NOT

“exploded” as the CDC and others would have you believe. The

fact is, the rate of addiction in the United states today, is almost

exactly the same as it has been for decades. It has neither risen

nor fallen significantly from year to year or for that matter from

decade to decade.

That said, why is it we are literally throwing away 40 billion dollars

a year at a problem in which those affected make the choice to

spend their money buying illegal/ illegally obtained drugs

knowing full well the dangers of doing so, then swallow, snort,

smoke, or inject those illegal / illegally obtained substances,

typically mixing them with other illegal drugs and washing them

down with alcohol, for no reason other than to obtain their

desired high……

All the while, making it virtually impossible for chronic pain

patients to even find doctors willing to treat them, let alone willing

to prescribe their pain medications in amounts adequate to treat

or control their pain.

The rate of Americans suffering severe chronic pain which

requires daily pain medications continues to rise, not because of

any unchecked substance abuse problem gone wild, but rather,

because we have an aging baby boomer population that is living

longer than Americans have ever lived before, and has spent the

majority of their lives engaged in the back breaking labor required

to build the country we now live in. To make, invent, and improve

many of the products we can’t live without, and to provide our

children and grandchildren with the lives they now enjoy.

As we continue to age, our bodies naturally begin to break down,

and as they do it becomes harder to recover from illness and

injuries, or to fight off disease.

This isn’t a new phenomena or anything particularly unique to

baby boomers or any other generation, it’s just a physiological

fact.

Chronic Pain Patients, much like diabetics or epileptics don’t

abuse their meds, they don’t wash them down with booze, or mix

them together to obtain a euphoric high or take a trip without

ever leaving the place their in, they need those medications to

treat pain resulting from legitimate medical conditions.

In what universe is it right to force these legitimate patients to

sign pain contracts, submit to drug tests, pill counts, and

dangerous non FDA approved invasive procedures, injections,

and surgeries, dangling the prescriptions they need to survive

and live from one day to the next over their heads like carrots,

and after forcing them to submit to all of this, refuse to give them

adequate amounts of their needed medications to treat their

pain?

In what America is it okay for patients dying of horrific diseases

like cancer, post operative patients, patients suffering from

incurable degenerative disease processes, and accident victims

to be denied safe effective pain management medications, and

treat them like criminals and drug addicts because they are in

need of that medication?

FULL DISCLOSURE,

I am a big Trump supporter, and i’m unapologetic for being so.

However, I have a serious issue with Trumps stance on pain

medications, and take huge issue with the things he says publicly

regarding the supposed “opioid epidemic.”

Much of what Trump says regarding this subject is not factual.

I have no clue where or from whom he’s getting his information,

but they’re doing him a huge dis-service by feeding him talking

points which are incorrect making him appear uninformed and

ignorant on the subject.

At no point has he ever acknowledged the collateral damage

being done to those suffering chronic pain in his “War on Drugs.”

Nor has he acknowledged the fact that the CDC illegally put

together their “guidelines” in 2016, and those “guidelines” were

based upon false information and manipulated research results

from illegitimate, unscientific studies which lasted less than 3

months and did not include legitimate pain patients. (1)

This bears repeating, “the CDC illegally put together their

“guidelines” in 2016, and those “guidelines” were based upon

false information and manipulated research results from

illegitimate, unscientific studies which lasted less than 3 months

and did not include legitimate pain patients.”

Nor did they consult ANYONE who is a professional or expert on

the treatment of chronic or intractable pain patients or for that

matter pain at all, in fact, the CDC’s illegal “guidelines” were

written in secret by individuals who had huge conflicts of interest,

and whose careers and finances would be significantly

impacted by their successfully accomplishing the distribution

those illegal guidelines.

As an entirely predicted result of that document, thousands of

Americans suffering unrelenting excruciating pain resulting from

catastrophic accidents, injuries, botched surgical and other

medical procedures, American Veterans wounded while serving

our country, as well as Americans who suffer incurable

and degenerative diseases are choosing to end their lives

because their meds were drastically reduced or stopped all

together leaving them in absolute misery with no where to turn

and no acceptable alternatives, Until in their minds, the

only alternative left was to stop the pain by ending their own

lives.

Trump mentions nothing about these Americans. Nor does he

mention the more than 16 million chronic pain patients still trying

to hold on.

This is a glaring omission when it comes to this “War on Drugs”

he is trying to fight, one that is now just beginning to come back

at him.

I would advise those providing his information to step up their

game, or those 16 million plus chronic pain patients, their family

members, friends, and loved ones who care for and love them

will turn into 40-60 million votes he may not get when it comes

time to go to the polls.

Folks, whether you are a Chronic Pain Patient, someone who

loves and cares for one, or not, if there is one thing I want you to

take away from this message today, one thing I’m begging you to

remember, asking you to go to your twitter and facebook pages

and discuss with your friends and followers it’s this, None of us

ever plan to get seriously ill.

We don’t leave our homes in the morning prepared to not return

for days, weeks, or months because we’ve suffered a freak

accident on our way to or from work, or Because we’ve been

involved in a horrible car accident.

Those things happen in an instant, they happen when we aren’t

looking, and in many cases, they leave us forced to depend upon

and put our faith in our doctors. We expect those doctors to set

our broken bones, operate on us, heal us, and perhaps most

importantly to ease our pain.

What will you do when YOU or YOUR loved one is the one

screaming in agony, begging for relief from the pain you or they

are suffering? When those same doctors look at you and say

nope, sorry, I’m not risking my medical license just to ease your

pain. Or when they tell you to take two Tylenol when you get

home after having a knee or hip replaced, a shoulder

reconstructed, or some other major surgery?

Guess what folks, it’s happening right now all across our country.

Hospitals and doctors are refusing to treat pain outright, or

offering only non effectual things like Motrin and Tylenol for

broken bones, and nothing at all for c-sections.

If you’re not outraged, if you don’t stand up and fight back right

now while you can, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT TO BE

ABLE TO DO ONCE YOU ARE THE ONE IN UNIMAGINABLE

PAIN?

What You Can Do Right Now

Write and call your elected representatives, tell them you want

the government to stay out of your medical care and exam

room.

Stop infringing on your rights as an American citizen and

making it impossible for you to get adequate appropriate

pain medications and medical care.

Tell them to Put a leash on the DEA, restrict them to

investigating and going after illegal drugs making their way into

our country, and those trafficking and dealing them.

STOP limiting the manufacture of SAFE LEGAL PAIN

MEDICATIONS developed, tested and designed for the

treatment of pain both acute and long term.

Remind them that this is in fact NOT a prescription drug crisis,

but an illegal illicitly manufactured drug crisis involving

dangerous illegally manufactured fentanyl, heroin, and

Methamphetimine.

It involves addicts who are using these illegal substances mixing

them with other illegally obtained drugs and/or alcohol, and has

NOTHING to do with legitimate chronic pain patients who

need opiate pain medications in order to function on a daily

basis.

Tell them to LEAVE OUR DOCTORS ALONE!

STOP punishing those least able to fight for themselves or fight back.

Explain that there are over 100 million Americans suffering

from chronic pain, 16 million + of whom need opiate pain

medications on a daily basis to function and have some

quality of life. Those 16 million plus chronic pain

patients are finding it nearly impossible to obtain medical

care or get the opiate pain meds they need to live in exactly

the same way a diabetic needs insulin to live.

Let them know under no uncertain terms that If they refuse

to stand and help us, they are against us, if they are against

us, they won’t get our votes, the votes of our family

members, friends, loved ones, or the votes of those

who care for us, and 60 to 80 million votes are enough to

sway any election.

Demand they put a stop to the PDMP (Prescription Drug

Monitoring Program) tracking system which tracks all of your

medications, when where and why you take them. It allows

any one working at a police department, hospital, doctors

office, pharmacy, or even veterinarians office to have access

to your personal medical information, and the power to

deny you or even your dog pain meds and treatment based

upon the often inaccurate or incomplete information found

there.

START FIGHTING BACK EVERY WAY YOU CAN, WHEN EVER, Where ever you can!

Know that the illegal drug crisis has NOTHING what so ever to do

with doctors, pain medication, or pain patients. This is false

information and it has been proven to be false over and over

again. They want you to believe the misinformation they are

feeding you, DON’T!

YOU MUST watch your own state legislators and what they are

doing regarding the treatment of pain. It will be cleverly hidden in

“opiate epidemic legislation”.

If you find something READ IT, make sure you understand what

they are saying, and if you don’t, send it to me, or call your state

reps and insist that they explain it to you. It’s your job to

protect yourself and your loved ones from this nightmare they

are creating. Remember there are only 2.1 million addicts in this

country, why must the other 331 million American citizens

suffer quite literally for the bad choices of those addicted to

illegal street drugs.

Okay, so all of that having been said, let’s begin to try and break

some of this down piece by piece, section by section. I’m going

to attempt to present all of this information to you all in a way

that makes some sort of sense, please bare with me, there are a

lot of spiders weaving this web we are caught in, and they’ve

been at it for quite some time, so I ask you to be patient. If I

mention something you don’t understand, didn’t know about,

can’t believe, or want supporting info on, a transcript of this and

all of the other parts to this series, as well as all of my other

streams can be found on my web site

PassionatePachyderms.com

Within those transcripts you’ll find all of the documenting links

and materials I’ve used to put the stream together.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! So if you want to become a force to

be reckoned with in this WAR ON PAIN PATIENTS AND THEIR

DOCTORS, I encourage you to take what I’ve started and add to

it.

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!

Don’t take my word for things, If I tell you something, look it up

for yourself and follow where it leads you, it’s likely you will find

things I didn’t, and be able to add important information to what

I’ve started.

I encourage all of you to arm yourselves with the facts you find.

Together we CAN win!

Alone, all we can do is make noise.

It’s your decision.

I won’t EVER knowingly tell you anything I don’t believe to be true and factual.

If you have not yet seen the other two streams I’ve done on this topic, I urge you to do so prior to watching this series.

https://youtu.be/oDQhS3tHn6Y The U.S. Governments War On Pain Patients, It’s All About The Money Honey

https://youtu.be/zcHqNdd5niQ The Fake Opioid Crisis, Created & Manufactured By Your Elected Representatives & The Veterans Admin

The first two will provide you with needed background

information, and assist you in understanding the enormity of what

we are up against. Just like putting a puzzle with ten thousand

pieces together requires the ability to see the entire

picture, so too does this issue.

I believe Andrew Kolodny, PROP and their friends are at the

center of this particular part of the spider web. So I’ve chosen to

start there with part 2.

If you enjoyed this stream, please hit that thumbs up button,

doing so will push it higher up in the youtube rankings and

make it easier for others to find.

Also, please subscribe to the Passionate Pachyderm channel

here on youtube so that you can be notified each time we go

live with a new stream, which will help especially since this is

a series of streams you won’t want to miss.

We invite you to join us on our web site,

PassionatePachyderms.com

There you’ll find transcripts of all of our videos, along with

articles written by myself and other members of The herd on

this topic and others, if you are so inclined, you can sign up

to become a member of the more than 2.5 million Passionate

Pachyderms herd.

Andrew Kolodny Part 2

“Who is this Dr. A. Kolodny, that everyone from journalists to policy

makers and bloggers keep quoting as an “expert on opiates”?”

A psychiatrist and board-certified addiction specialist-turned policy

maker (1) and buprenorphine (Suboxone) “evangelist” (2).whose first

private clinic was a Suboxone clinic in New York City, established

sometime around 2003-2005.

It appears he (and/or other health officials) felt stymied by the federal

limit at the time of just 30 patients for such clinics (put in place to stem

corruption), because said health officials had been in the background,

quietly working away at this very limit which was amended in 2006, to

allow 100* patients after 1 year, and was recently in the House of

Representatives for being overturned altogether, along with expanding

legal prescribers to nurses and other non-doctor medical staff.

What happened as a result:

Health officials, concerned about restricted access, lobbied alongside

Reckitt Benckiser (Maker of Suboxone) for the patient cap to be raised.

“Why should we bind a healer’s hands from helping as many as he or she

could?” Senator Hatch said, getting an amendment passed in 2006 which

allowed doctors, on request, to go from 30 to 100 patients after a year.

With this, the stage was set for more patients, prescriptions and problems.

“It’s when the limit was raised from 30 that doctors started to get

commercial about it,” said Dr. Art Van Zee, whose buprenorphine program at a

federally funded community health center in rural Virginia is surrounded by

for-profit clinics where doctors charge $100 for weekly visits, pulling in, he

estimated, about $500,000 a year.

“They are not savvy about addiction medicine, don’t follow patients very

closely, don’t do urine testing and overprescribe,” he said. “That’s how

buprenorphine became a street drug in our area.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/health/in-demand-in-clinics-and-on-the-street-bupe-can-be-savior-or-menace.html

“In the early days of Suboxone, with Reckitt Benckiser barely marketing its

own drug, Dr. Kolodny, then a New York City health official, crisscrossed the

city with colleagues to spread the word about the new medication, entice

public hospitals to try it, enticing them with $10,000 rewards and urging

doctors to get certified.”

Since at least 2005, Kolodny has been marketing buprenorphine as if he

has a personal stake in the drug, to government institutions and

agencies including prisons, public hospitals, and rehabilitation facilities.

In fall of 2013, he was appointed CMO (Chief Medical Officer) of the

largest chain of non-profit detox/rehab addiction facilities in the USA,

these addiction facilities were cited for questionable practices and abuse

between 2012-2015 and named Phoenix House.

Phoenix House, had operating revenues of $131 million in June 2013

according to their “statement of financial position” much of which came

from Government funding.

Phoenix house (7) championed the use of MAT, or “Medication Assisted

Treatment,” and now funds his non-profit policy influencing group PROP,

or Physicians for Responsible Prescribing.

I wonder which drug Phoenix House primarily used?

Kolodny often cites the United States vs. Purdue Pharma (2007) settlement

in his interviews and writings, perhaps he saw an opportunity to expand

the use of buprenorphine by targeting and demeaning chronic pain

patients as mere “addicts”.

Interesting that in researching that incident,

in the official “Purdue Guilty Plea” document (8), the very words they

were condemned for, claiming OxyContin to be “less addictive” and “less

subject to abuse and diversion” appear to be the exact words he uses

regularly when describing the benefits of buprenorphine (2).

Kolodny regularly reminds his colleagues of the drug’s advantages. He

stresses that bupe in the form of Suboxone is safe and almost impossible to

abuse, a huge selling point at many clinics deal with addiction.

According to Kolodny, “Suboxone has a second active ingredient in the mix,

he explains, an anti-overdose drug called naloxone. (Better known as Narcan)

It does nothing if you take bupe as directed. But if you sniff bupe, inject it or

otherwise try to pack enough into your bloodstream to get high, the

naloxone acts like a chemical booby trap, erasing the effects of any opiate,

bupe included, and bringing on sweaty, nauseating withdrawal. “That’s the

last time you’ll do it. ” https://www.wired.com/2005/04/bupe/

After attempting to get the FDA to adopt these “guidelines” and failing in

2014, The FDA flatly refused to entertain the idea of making any of

PROP’s proposed changes largely due to the lack of evidence and

supporting documentation of the things PROP was attempting to pass

off as fact.

In 2015, Kolodny’s organization, PROP (Physicians for Responsible Opiate

Prescribing), got the ear of the CDC and members of his advisory board

helped to write the now-infamous, illegal, misinformed, and rushed

guidelines for prescribing opiates.

While these guidelines were fairly general in nature, they have been

used as a springboard for countless pieces of state legislation and DEA

investigations, which has, in turn, led to the abuse and abandonment of

chronic pain patients and doctors, as well as opiate shortages in

hospitals and Emergency Rooms across the country. (The DEA, in an

attempt to prevent diversion of opiates to the black market, has cut

production by an incredible 45% in the past 2 years, and is now

threatening to restrict production even more).

We can safely assume that suits Kolodny just fine, since he has publicly

stated he believes opiates should be discontinued for all but those near

death and post-major surgery “for a few days.” (https://www.ket.org/opioids/inside-opioid-addiction-10-questions-with-dr-andrew-kolodny/),

Kolodny believes “more treatment” is needed presumably via Medication

assisted treatment (MAT) using Suboxone in (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/3/16079772/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdoses), clinics like Phoenix House.

Kolodny has hailed local municipalities and states in their ongoing

pursuit of legal action against American Big Pharma, the companies who

make such things as Vicodin and Percocet, but not Suboxone/

buprenorphine (also an opiate), which is made by the overseas company,

Reckitt Benckiser, or Naloxone (Narcan), which is produced in a nasal

spray exclusively by Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (10), a relatively new

company founded in California in 1996 (11), whose stock (and Narcan

prices) have been rising quite a bit, lately (12, 13). This leads one to

wonder, is Kolodny really against the use of opioids, or just the ones that

actually help those suffering legitimate pain that he doesn’t have a

vested interest in?

Although his policies, based on inaccurate data (14-15) https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/10/12/opioid-epidemic-6-charts-designed-deceive-you-11935 (15), and http://www.mdmag.com/journals/pain-management/2012/october-november-2012/just-how-responsible-is-prop,

have been wildly ineffective at stopping heroin/fentanyl overdoses; and

Kolodny is not a pharmacologist, opiate researcher, pain doctor, pain

patient, surgeon, or even general practitioner; although he did run a

private clinic for a short time in 2005 that dispensed buprenorphine/

Suboxone, he has, for the majority of his career from all accounts, been a

policy-maker and not directly involved with addiction patients or chronic

pain patients whom he recently claimed were simply “addicts in need of

compassion and “treatment” ( presumably, with Suboxone).

Kolodny is cited and quoted in an impressive number of articles and

interviews as a compassionate person who wants to see people and their

families heal from the devastation of addiction, which is why it is

intriguing to find quotes from him that weren’t “nice” at all.

“It is the FDA’s role to vigilantly regulate the approval, labeling, and

promotion of pharmaceutical products, not that of counties or municipalities.

County and municipal lawyers are inadequately qualified to make or enforce

federal drug policy, and these lawsuits serve as a vehicle for local

governments to seek revenue through ill-informed measures under the guise

of drug abuse prevention.”

In a May 30, 2014, interview with FDA Week, a CLAAD spokesman voiced

these positions and expressed concern that these lawsuits are part of “a

trend that will distract us from the real meaningful approaches to reducing

prescription drug abuse.”

After reading the interview, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) and Chief Medical Officer of Phoenix House, contacted CLAAD via telephone to condemn its comments. During this conversation, Kolodny threatened that the Internal Revenue Service would revoke CLAAD’s tax-exempt status when alerted to the comments, which he believes conflict with CLAAD’s charitable mission. CLAAD takes

these false allegations and threats very seriously.

Critics who categorically dispute the motives of organizations like CLAAD

and its diverse coalition members are, at best, narrowly focused. Their

zealotry reveals their otherwise undisclosed health insurance industry bias.

At worst, they endanger the lives of people who live with pain and other

conditions that can require controlled substances by stifling access to quality

care. http://paindr.com/claad-and-phoenix-house-square-off/ (16)

Anyone who questions Kolodny’s authority, expertise, policies, or the

efficacy of his pet drug, buprenorphine, is loudly dismissed by Kolodny as

uneducated (17), addicted (15a), or corrupt (15a, 18), regardless of how

closely they actually work with addicts and pain patients (17).

Kolodny makes a practice of banning those who disagree with him on social

media platforms like Twitter as well.

Apparently, if you don’t agree with him completely about all things, and sing

his praises, he isn’t interested in discussing the issue of addiction or the fact

that chronic pain patients who need opiate pain medications to function in

their daily lives are being made to pay the price for those with addiction

problems by having their medications severely cut back or stopped all

together, and that is leading to catastrophic consequences for those who

have never abused drugs, or taken their medications in any way other than

prescribed by their physicians.

When Kolodny was told that Pain patients are committing suicide in

desperation as a result of their pain medications being stopped or severely

reduced with no hope for relief in the future, Kolodny stated he didn’t believe

anyone had committed suicide due to untreated/under treated pain, and that

the stories were all made up, presumably by pain patients that in his opinion,

are addicts.

Apparently those who died just didn’t know it.

Hardly the picture of a compassionate individual in my opinion.

In fact, I’d love to explain to Dr. Kolodny, that many chronic pain patients

are feeling so increasingly desperate, that they are turning to the very

street drugs killing people, in a desperate attempt to get some relief and

be able to care for themselves and their families. Many feel as though

they have nothing left to lose.

Policies and attitudes like those he spews to anyone willing to listen

have directly impacted chronic pain patients health, freedom, ability to

be parents or grandparents, their work, hobbies, family, finances, friends,

and every other aspect of their lives.

Physically unable to stand up to the onslaught coming at them from all

sides without the help of medications many of them have been taking

without incident for decades, they feel powerless and victimized. The

media ignores their pleas for help, their elected representatives gaslight

them and ignore the tens of thousands of letters and phone calls

pleading for representation and assistance, they are treated like

criminals and drug addicts, forced to endure painful invasive procedures

many of which are not FDA approved, and surgeries that more often than

not, leave them worse off than they were before in order to obtain even a

fraction of the medication it takes to adequately control their pain.

They are forced to take drug screen tests regularly as if they have already

been found guilty of some imagined crime, submit to pill counts, sign

contracts that strip them of their rights and freedoms, and then if they

manage to get a script for pain medications, they must endure abusive

treatment at their pharmacies, their privacy is invaded, their medications

are tracked, and very often they are turned away and forced to go in

search of a pharmacy willing to fill their legal legitimate prescription.

If they have an emergency medical situation which requires a visit to the

emergency room, they are treated as though they are drug seekers,

criminals, and addicts. They are disrespected and denied care, their pleas

for pain relief are ignored regardless of the presenting condition. They’ve

been physically and verbally abused to the point where most chronic

pain patients will tell you emphatically, that no matter how bad things

get, how hurt or sick they become, they will NEVER go to the emergency

room. It is now a place of abuse, torture and neglect rather than one of

compassion and assistance.

These people have committed no crime, done nothing wrong. They are

not addicts, nor are they drug seeking. They are people with complicated

medical histories, legitimate conditions and diseases many of which are

rare and/or incurable.

According to the FDA; “Their pain is physiologically no different than that

of a cancer patient. Pain is Pain regardless of the underlying condition

causing it, and must be adequately and appropriately treated.”

But self described “expert” Andrew Kolodny, who has ZERO experience

with physical medicine, is not a pain specialist, anesthesiologist, or

pharmacologist, isn’t a medical doctor who has ever treated the

conditions and diseases referred to above disagrees, in his opinion, we’re

all just addicts who apparently need to be treated with suboxone,

Narcan, and forced into drug rehab. His deluded thought process has

infected much of the medical profession.

In my opinion, any medical professional found guilty of these offenses

should be held responsible for each and every moment these patients

are forced to endure unimaginable pain without adequate treatment.

Under treatment is exactly the same as refusal of treatment, both are

grounds for medical malpractice.

additional info about being unable to find info.

The following is conjecture. My personal thoughts on the matter. To be clear, what follows is merely a possible hypothesis, it could be right on the mark, or it could just as easily be completely wrong. That said,

Here is a question, How does someone who has never actually really practiced

medicine, (except for a very short period at an addiction treatment center in New York City shortly after finishing college) become a supposed (self appointed expert) in something like the treatment of pain patients?

Thwarting tens of thousands of Medical doctors with decades of REAL physical hands on experience, and burst onto the scene telling everyone and anyone that he is THE EXPERT in all things opiate related, and all these other REAL experts, don’t know anything?

And how do you do that, and have absolutely NOTHING on the internet about your college years, your dissertation for your Graduate degree isn’t published anywhere, and there are no news clippings about anything you did prior to 2010?

I’ve been searching for the past 7 hours for anything that might explain this quandry, and i’ve come up with nada, not one thing on Kolodny prior to that time.

So in my conservative conspiracy oriented mind, the only thing I can come up with is, he isn’t qualified.

What if, what ever credentials he listed when he took the job at the addiction place in NYC in 2005 were bogus, and he has just skated with no one having ever checked the validity of his “credentials”.

Perhaps the sudden spring to fame and fortune was initially born of covering his ass??

I know, kind of far fetched, but hey wouldn’t it be something if that were the case and we could out him?

Kolodny started all, this nonsense, and yet there is NOTHING out there to be found on him.

I can’t even find out who his parents are, and that tells me he or someone on his behalf, has had the internet scrubbed of his information.

Why would someone do that if they were proud of their accomplishments? Proud of their schooling, and the work it took to get through it.

I just find it VERY bazaar that there is NOTHING.

I mean you know as well as I do, that if you googled your primary care provider for example, a ton of stuff would be returned just by vertue of them being a doctor.

Just to prove my theory, I googled my Dr. and I can follow him all the way back to the scholarships he got, and his parents names where they lived etc. but there is NOTHING on Kolodny.

I wonder what would happen, if “someone” asked these questions, and pointed out nothing can be found on him, unlike that which can be found on virtually every other M.D., and what IF he wasn’t actually a doctor? What IF he was a created college drop out?

What if he didn’t in fact have any medical degree at all?

and all of these government agencies were blindly following where he has led them in spite of him not having the qualifications to go there?

Wouldn’t that be so huge a scandal and wide reaching liability on each and every entity that failed to confirm his credentials that it would virtually bring all of this to an end immediately?

Or would our benevolent government engage in the biggest game of cover your ass ever seen, and sweep it under the rug like they have ohh say AGENT ORANGE?

Again, just thoughts, and something one might consider if of course they believed in conspiracy theories.

Wouldn’t a sociopath NEED to come out, run his mouth, and try to prove that this was untrue? To answer the questions being presented and prove he in fact did or does have the appropriate credentials?

An interesting thought. Too bad we haven’t uncovered anything to prove or disprove it.

I am Passionate Pachyderms, and this is Chuck Pithy.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this stream, and that you’ll join us

for part 3 in this series which will cover PROP and it’s board members, followed by part 4 on PDMP’s and Narxcare.