THE PAIN OF ADDICTION

It's so nice to know that in downtown Vancouver there is a nice, safe,
clean and free injection site for those who are addicted to heroin.

There's even talk of providing crack cocaine addicts with a place for
them to light up. Yet for those of us prescribed prescription
narcotics we are treated far less humanely.

More often than not we are simply turned away. Those who truly have an
addiction problem would be more than happy to seek treatment, just so
long as that treatment was safe, supportive and humane.

Unfortunately, experience has proved the opposite. It's with more
disdain, disinterest and disgust we often face, usually by those in
the same profession who put us there. No matter it was a doctor who
prescribed you the medication; no matter you've been on it for years,
the fact is you're "on it" and therefore you are guilty.

Forget about the pain it was prescribed for in the first place - pain
that if left untreated could seriously harm your health. It doesn't
seem to matter anymore.

We've fought hard to get our pain recognized, those like me on
disability suffered years before giving in, but it's why we sought
treatment in the first place, treatment for our pain, not treatment
for our medication. Granted there are those that abuse this
medication, just as they abuse other types of drugs for pain. There is
no fun in pain. We aren't using it for relief. Sure, weed out the ones
abusing, but don't cut off all the rest.

At least the addicts receive the treatment. Honest sufferers just lay
at home. I say it really does look kind of hopeless and enormously
unfair when it's OK to be a junkie, but God help you if you're in pain.

Randy Lee