Welcome

Why This Website is About TWO Topics

The Opioid Crisis currently gripping the United States has severely impacted not one but TWO largely distinct groups:  The first group comprises people who have succumbed to opioid addiction, with devastating consequences.

The second group hard hit by the opioid crisis are chronic pain patients who now find the pain medications they need to function increasingly difficult, sometimes impossible to get. Government responses to the opioid epidemic consisted primarily of limiting access to opioids, which had the unfortunate effect of depriving innocent pain patients of access to needed pain medications. What has happened to these pain patients is unjust, unethical, and cruel. In the war on drugs, pain patients have been conscripted against their will, sacrificed as collateral damage and forgotten.

This website seeks to raise awareness of BOTH sets of victims in the opioid crisis. Most people see pain and addiction as separate problems that require separate solutions. I see the two problems as inextricably linked, in need of a common comprehensive strategy that deals with both issues simultaneously. Otherwise, proposed solutions to one will be detrimental for the other; as has already happened with pain patients. Efforts to improve access to opioids for pain patients will not succeed in garnering support from policymakers without including safeguards to prevent another resurgence in opioid abuse.

Currently, the addiction community seems oblivious to the suffering of the pain community while chronic pain patients see drug addiction as the enemy that took away their access to pain medications. Addiction doctors generally refuse to deal with pain while pain doctors do not know enough addiction medicine to manage anything more complicated than the simplest cases of addiction. By introducing a single website that deals with both pain and addiction, I hope to educate each side about the other. Perhaps that way, a common strategy might be formulated.

Mission Statement

---

---

---

Disclaimer: This website contains articles on several medical topics. As with everything in medicine, information is continuously updated. No warranty is made that any statement contained or cited in an article touching on medical matters is true, correct, precise, or up-to-date. Even where a statement made about medicine is accurate, it may not apply to you or your symptoms. Please consult your physician or health care provider.

With regards to advice to fellow practitioners, laws and regulations governing the practice of medicine varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another. Before adopting any suggestions or advice offered in this website, please ensure such actions would be commensurate with all local laws and regulations in your area. The user of this website assumes all responsibility and accepts all consequences of adopting any information on this website.  Opinions expressed on this website are my own.

FEEDBACK : Please help improve this website by leaving feedback. Feel free to suggest topics you would like to see covered. Your help would be appreciated.

Kindly share on social media or email any videos, articles or other content you think might be helpful to others

@simonfengmd