Ever stub your toe? Have a toothache? Get stung by a wasp? Burned your hand on the stove? Broke a bone? Hurts, doesn’t it? In some of these cases it may hurt a great deal, in others not so much. In the cases where it hurts a lot, it’s called acute pain, because—well, the pain is acute.
But here’s the thing: in time your stubbed toe will be fine, your dentist will fix your tooth, your wasp sting will heal, your burnt hand will recover, your broken bone will be mended and in a short period of time (days to week to perhaps even months depending on the severity of the incident) you’ll be fine. A year from the incident you probably won’t even think about it—shit happens, then it gets fixed, and life goes on.
But for just a moment, close your eyes and see if you can remember that burst of pain that happened back then and how much it hurt. Now imagine that same pain being with you every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of your life. That’s called chronic pain. There are over 50 million people in the U.S. who suffer from chronic pain. The lucky ones experience it in just their backs, or necks or maybe in their hips or knees—it never goes away, it prevents them from doing some activities, and does have an impact on their quality of life. Then there is nerve pain which can be all invasive. Regardless, there are a large number of chronic pain patients who suffer pain literally from the top of their heads (migraines) to the bottom of their feet (plantar fasciitis) and everywhere in between (neck, shoulders, back, hips, knees, etc.) to the point that even clothing rubbing against their skin can be a source of excruciating pain. The pain these people suffer from is so severe that in many cases they cannot even get out of bed, there are no activities they can do (like cooking or going to the bathroom, much less go shopping or out to dinner or meet with friends or heaven forbid go to a party or concert) without assistance. Obviously, this causes a major impact on their quality of life: it’s tough to hold a job if you can’t show up for work, it’s humiliating to require (and pay for) assistance to go to the bathroom or prepare a meal, and it’s a major drain on their friends and families because most chronic pain patients are suffering from ailments that have no cure and whose major symptom is PAIN and they need help to do every day tasks.
If you know anyone who suffers from chronic pain (#CPP for chronic pain patient) you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, try to imagine it—I can almost guarantee that your imagination will be so far from reality that you couldn’t walk a block in their shoes if your life depended on it. One of the best descriptions I’ve ever read on what chronic pain feels like came from Bill Walton, former NBA all-star whose pain was so bad that he, like many CPPs seriously contemplated suicide. Here’s how he described his chronic pain:
“Think of being submerged in a tub of boiling acid with an electrified current running through it. That would be nothing.”
Bill was fortunate in that he could afford the best medical care in the world and after 36 unsuccessful surgeries and myriad alternative approaches he found Dr. Steven Garfin who was able to finally resolve his nerve pain with a minimally invasive surgical procedure. It literally saved Bill’s life.
Yet here in the U.S. Chronic Pain (also known as Intractable Pain—which is basically unresolvable Chronic Pain) is not even classified as a disease—it’s labeled as a symptom or a condition. Left untreated, or under treated it leads to high blood pressure, muscle atrophy, stress, anxiety, suffering and much, much more. There’s no medical test for pain, you can’t see it by looking at the patient or measure it by taking xRays or MRIs or Cat Scans. Which leads a fair number of doctors to believe the pain is all in the Chronic Pain Patient’s head. To which, in my opinion, the proper response would be to kick them in the balls as hard as you could and tell them, “Yup, you’re right, that pain is all in your head—your little one.”
There are many causes, some known, many not, for Chronic Pain. Basically, there are two underlying sources for chronic pain: a disease or an occupation. In the disease category, Fibromyalgia and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome are often a source of Chronic Pain. There are many more, but I mention these two as there is no medical lab test for them and diagnosis is often much delayed, if not entirely overlooked. In theory, Chronic Pain from Fibromyalgia is pretty constant, while that from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is progressive. The catch is that (like many pain causing diseases) there are no cures for either Fibromyalgia or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which means that all that being diagnosed with either of these conditions goes nowhere unless the resulting symptoms—i.e. the Chronic Pain are addressed.
Getting accurate figures for chronic pain are difficult: they seem to range between 50 million and 100 million sufferers in the United States alone. Trying to break down incidents of CPP by occupation is even trickier. Here are the best estimates we could fine of what percentage of an occupations’ workforce has chronic pain by the time they retire.
| OCCUPATION | PERCENTAGE OF RETIREES WHO HAVE CPP |
| NFL Players | 90% |
| Truck Drivers | 81% |
| Hospitality Workers | 75% |
| Military | 65% |
| Miners | 64% |
| Police | 62% |
| Farm Workers | 60% |
| Meat Packers | 60% |
| Loggers | 60% |
| Firefighters | 42% |
| Construction Workers | 40% |
| Commercial Fisherman | 37% |
| Oil Riggers | 30% |
| NBA Players | 20% |
| Longshoremen | 19% |
With the exception of NFL and NBA players, each of these jobs are essential to our economy, our safety and our quality of life. They pay a heavy price for keeping our infrastructure going. Some are lucky enough to qualify for high retirement and disability benefits and enjoy a higher quality of medical treatment than the average citizen. Others, especially hospitality workers, farm workers and meat packers don’t have these benefits and are basically seen as collateral damage to feeding and caring for the rest of us. In simple terms, they sacrifice their lives and bodies and health for our benefit and then throw them into our health care system to manage as best they can, which can be fatal. Our health care cost the most of all industrial nations and yet in terms of efficacy (and meaningful treatment) ranks dead last. As is often the case, the US Government turns its back on its allies (and in this case its citizens.)
VIOLATIONS OF THE US CODE OF LAW BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AGAINST CPP
The US Department of Justice defines torture in Section 2340A of Title 18, United States Code thusly (italics are mine):
Section 2340A of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits torture committed by public officials under color of law against persons within the public official’s custody or control. Torture is defined to include acts specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering. (It does not include such pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions.) The statute applies only to acts of torture committed outside the United States. There is Federal extraterritorial jurisdiction over such acts whenever the perpetrator is a national of the United States or the alleged offender is found within the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or the alleged offender.
Let’s break this down: torture (which is what Pain Management doctors knowingly do to CPP patients when cutting down their pain meds under guidance from the CDC and the DOJ) is prohibited from being committed by public officials (i.e. health care doctors) against persons within the public official’s custody or control (i.e. Chronic Pain Patients.) Not surprisingly this only applies to such acts of torture committed outside the United States. Just another case of the US saying do as I say, not as I do.
VIOLATIONS OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION AGAINST CPP
The Geneva Conventions contain numerous provisions that absolutely prohibit torture and other cruel or inhuman treatment and outrages upon individual dignity. The US has not ratified the two new protocols of the Geneva Convention of 1977 which state in part:
Combatants must take all feasible precautions in choosing weapons and methods of warfare in order to avoid incidental loss of life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
Since the US has declared a “War on Drugs” enforced with lethal effect by agents of the DEA, FBI and local police departments against Doctors and Patients alike the US Government once again speaks with a forked tongue.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST CPP
Nor has the US ratified the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which include the following basic human rights that are consistently abused when it comes to the treatment of CPP.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 21
2 Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
Article 25
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
So why does the US Government willingly and aggressively violate the US Code, The Geneva Convention and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Is it because it’s trying to kill of this segment of the population that through no fault of their own is suffering and has, in many cases after years of loyal service to our country, now become a burden? Is it due to corporate greed (make no mistake, health care and big pharma are huge businesses) where there’s not enough money to be made dealing with Chronic Pain Patients (especially as the patents have expired on Hydrocodone and Oxycodone, big pharma is now frantically searching for a new, patentable drug for chronic pain patients so they can regain the glory years of obscene profits they had when they held the patents on opioids.) Is it a case of corruption—the health care lobby is the largest in the US. In fact, the pharmaceutical and health products industry has spent the most on lobbying over the past 24 years. It’s estimated that they spend the equivalent of $1 million annually per congressman. This level of money creates an environment for corruption. (Many of us are old enough to remember highly compensated medical doctors advocating the benefits of smoking for many decades in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.) But the true causes of the so-called opioid crisis, and its millions upon millions of innocent victims who are knowingly tortured as their pain meds are drastically cut back are much more ominous and are revealed in THE WAR ON DRUGS post.
