A few months ago, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a National Pain Strategy. This strategy provides guidance on developing ways to measure pain and its management, improving care surrounding pain, and increasing public awareness of pain in order to destigmatize it.
As pain patients, we know that pain affects much of our lives as well – something that others aren’t necessarily always in tune with. This strategy would help to recognize and promote that to those currently not in the know.
This would also help to lower the people who are on opiates unnecessarily and help them to gain access to other pain management fitting their pain. It is, after all, a part of the initiative to lower opiate abuse.
The National Pain Strategy is a first-of-its-kind blueprint for improving chronic pain care in America, that increases research of pain treatments, medical training for clinicians, and awareness of chronic pain as a disease of epidemic proportions. Without an outcry from patients and advocates, NPS may not be implemented or funded at all. The chronic pain epidemic must be addressed immediately by fully implementing and funding the NPS.
The National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association, along with The Consumer Pain Advocacy Task Force, have combined forces to create a petition on the White House petition site in order to ask for this to pass.
We need 100,000 signatures by August 12. As of this morning, that means we need just shy of 92,000 signatures in ten days.
I know we can do this if we all sign and share.
What can you do to help?
- Sign the petition here and make sure to share on social media (bonus points for using tags like #ISpeakForPain!)
- Write a blog post or record a video about it and share that!
- Use the photo I’ve created below to share on Insta
Ensuring that this passes will make the world better and less painful for us. Let’s do what we can to make it so.
Hi Kirsten,
I don't know if this is the right section to ask this but I'll take my chances.
I've been suffering from a back injury for months now, and been dosing my self with a lot of pain relievers. I'm starting to think that I might take away the pain of my back with the meds but at the same time punishing my liver slowly. So I started reading articles about marijuana and it's medical aspect and found this along the way http://www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/medical-marijuana-has-profound-effect-on-pain-relief/.
I am already 34 years old and haven't tried smoking or any other means of using marijuana and I have nothing against it. My question is that if i try it would I be dependent at the same time addicted to it? And will it really ease the pain?
Hi Peter,
Don't worry about not having tried this yet! I'm 28 and only recently tried it on a trip to Oregon (http://www.notstandingstillsdisease.com/2016/12/when-in-oregon.html). I grew up there but never partook. What I tried was an edible that is actually more cannabidiol (CBD) than THC (the hallucinatory part of marijuana). CBD is also extremely effective for pain on its own and has been used in lotions, as a straight oil, in foods, and in capsules to provide relief. What I tried was chocolate with 5 mg CBD and 3 mg THC. I found myself comfortably numb with pain relief, maybe giggling a little more, but no real 'high' effects. I'm giggly anyway, so maybe that says something about me more than the product!
Addiction to marijuana really isn't possible from a medical standpoint. People do really like the effects, whether that's pain relief or being 'high' and so use it more often.
I have lotion with CBD oil in it and that alone provides pain relief to aching parts of my body. What I found with the edibles I tried was that they were effective especially for my headaches which was nice. The downside is I really don't like the taste of marijuana so the chocolate isn't easy to consume for me. Each person is different, but I would definitely recommend starting with a CBD oil lotion like those from The Fay Farm – http://thefayfarm.com/p/cbd. If you use the code 'STILLS' you can save some on your purchase which is nice. I have all three of the lotions and they're great. The healing hemp one is fantastic for joint pains and really helps my back spasms. All of these smell amazing in addition to helping. It's really nice. I'd suggest that as a first step – and a potentially less legal-issue-causing one, too, depending on where you live. If you do live where marijuana is legal, I certainly suggest giving it a try!
Be well <3