"...they held hands. He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself."

"Meredith said she and her husband went to their primary care physician and asked for a referral to another pain clinic. They were told it would take a minimum of six weeks."

"That was too much for Lawrence. In March, on the day of his next medical appointment, when his painkiller dosage was to be reduced again, he instead went to a nearby park with his wife. And on the very spot where they renewed their wedding vows just two years earlier, they held hands. He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself."

Go here to read the rest of this story...then maybe you'll understand how taking away pain medicine can be hazardous to our lives.

As doctors taper or end opioid prescriptions, many patients driven to despair, suicide

I have not had to take pain medicine for a long time, since the shots into my spine worked, but I remember what life was like in that kind of pain and no hope of it going away. The only thing that allowed me to keep going to work, was the medication to take some of the pain away.

Did The Cure For Pain Kill Iraq Veteran?

He survived the Iraq War, then lost an ugly battle against opioid addiction

Buffalo News

Lou Michel

December 3, 2017

“Don could walk, but he could not walk well. He was in pain...He was given a shot in the spine to block the pain. I think the shot gave him some relief but he should never have had to go back to Iraq.”

Capt. Donald Peterson, of the 98th Division of the Army Reserve, hugs his daughter Christina, 4, before heading off to Iraq in 2004. (Harry Scull Jr./News file photo)

The war was just beginning for Donald Peterson when he returned home from Iraq in 2005.

A traumatic brain injury, herniated discs and post-traumatic stress he suffered in battlegrounds overseas were his new enemies.

Opioids became his crutch.

As Peterson slipped into addiction and other medical problems arose, his wife and two daughters became fearful of the Army Reserve major. They moved out of their Amherst home for their own safety.

Then the 52-year-old combat veteran died alone last March in the Klein Road house he had remodeled for them.

His death certificate listed heart disease complicated by diabetes as the cause of death. His wife believes he might still be alive if he hadn’t become addicted to opioids, an addiction that started in the military. She blames Army doctors, veterans affairs physicians and a local pain specialist.

“When Don was at Walter Reed Medical Center, he told me they handed out the pain pills like Chiclets. He said he had become dependent on them,” Rosemarie Peterson said.

While much attention has been given to young people becoming addicted to opioids in recent years, little heed has been paid to the many military veterans showing up as addicts.

Between 2001 and 2009, military physicians wrote nearly 4 million prescriptions for painkillers to treat combat injuries and strains from the wear and tear of multiple deployments, according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs often ends up treating these veterans when they leave active duty, and the numbers show opioid addiction remains a formidable challenge:

• Some 68,000 veterans are being treated for “opioid use disorder” by the VA. 

• About one of every 10 soldiers who returns from Afghanistan and Iraq experiences problems with alcohol and other drugs. 

• Nearly one out of three veterans who seeks treatment for substance use disorder suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

read more here 

If you are having a hard time understanding what this pain is like, I am going through having shots into my spine right now. Back in April, I had the first round of needles being stuck into my spine.

While MRI and X-ray films show proof of the damage to my body, there are no machines to figure out what living with pain is like.

I take one pill in the morning so I can go to work, but my body has pretty much had it. I can't stand or sit for a long time. Laying down helps if I can stretch out. Not many jobs you can do in that position.

When you're in pain, you do whatever you can to make it stop. If your doctor tells you to take this pain med, you take it and hope it makes things better. You don't fear it will make it worse.

Same thing with PTSD. That is a type of pain you can't see but you can see the physical changes to your brain with a special scan. Still, when you have that pain, you just want to make it go away.

Days are a constant battle and nights are even worse. I do not know what it is like to have PTSD but I do know what it does, what surviving trauma did and I've seen what it is like when they start to heal.

As for this Major, the pain he must have been in should have kept him out of being deployed but not keeping him out of living the rest of his life with his family.

Back to the story, pay close attention to this part,

“In the period from 2001 to 2009, they issued 3.8 million prescriptions for pain reliving medications to the troops in the combat zone,” he said. “When these troops return home, the Department of Defense conducts random drug tests and some of those individuals were given other than honorable or dishonorable discharges."

If I am having such a hard time doing a desk job, think about the kind of pain they are risking their lives with while serving this nation. Is this justice for any of them?

Add in one more personal story that may make this easier to understand. I was so upset attending veterans events when news crews would show up, but veterans never saw the video on TV, that I went to College to figure out how to do the same thing for the veterans. I spent over $22,000 getting certifications in Digital Media. I have over 200 videos on Youtube. Since last year, I hardly ever go to the events because my body cannot take standing for long periods of time or walking too far. Going to the events was like fuel to my passion for veterans. 

I can't do it anymore even though I really want to and it is like torture for me.

They invest months of training, and then more training. They endure hardships none of us will ever understand because not doing what they are pulled to do, not doing it with those they are willing to die for, would be a type of torture for them. To be tossed out of the military because that service did something to their body-mind-spirit, is despicable.

Suicide? Don't Give Up On LIfe--Fight Back

Mental Health: Suicide ... giving up on life
Valley Star
By Ralph E. Jones
 Mental Health
Posted: Sunday, March 26, 2017

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, American Author, 1811-1896

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 45,000 individuals commit suicide each year in the United States; that is about 121 suicides per day.

It is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. For every suicide there are 25 failed attempts, and the number of admissions to hospitals for suicidal attempts is close to 500,000 per year.

Contrary to popular belief, the rates of suicide are highest in age groups among adults ages 45-64; the majority, 7 out of 10, being males (although females have the highest numbers of suicide attempts).

Of primary concern, and the reason behind writing this article, is the growing numbers of suicides among our young people and military veterans, ages 15 to 24 in particular. The Veterans Administration reports that approximately 22 veterans commit suicide every day. These are the highest rates since the VA began keeping record of such, and is a much higher number than in the general population.

In the general population of civilians, there is a growing number of youth committing suicide as well, primarily as a result of increase use of opioids, and the resultant overdose on opioids; which has blossomed into a national crisis.

In a report released this month by the Veterans Administration, a study of veterans use of drugs and alcohol as related to suicide, it was found that Veterans who have drug and/or alcohol problems are more than twice as likely to die by suicide as their comrades; and women Veterans with substance use disorders have an even higher rate of suicide — more than five times that of their peers.
read more here

Killing Pain or Killing Veterans?

The claim made about Opioids is a valid one. The question is, why hasn't Congress done their jobs after all the years it has been reported in the past?

Not a new problem for veterans

Air Force veteran Ken Grady, 45, says the local VA prescribed him OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin and fentanyl patches in the 2000s because of a series of surgeries for back injuries. “The VA made it so easy,” he says. “It was endless, and I abused it.”

And one more thing to point out is this.

Last month, Mr. Grady had several teeth pulled by a VA contractor, who prescribed him Vicodin for the pain. Mr. Grady says he protested, but “you don’t have to twist my arm too much.” He relapsed, bought more pills on the street and landed back in jail. He hoped to be out by Christmas but his mother says it is taking longer than expected to find treatment and a place to stay.

The VA Hooked Veterans on Opioids, Then Failed Them Again
Wall Street Journal
By Valerie Bauerlein and Arian Campo-Flores
Photographs by Travis Dove for The Wall Street Journal

Shortly after enlisting in the Army, Robert Deatherage was prescribed Percocet for a back injury. Wounds from Afghanistan meant more painkillers.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Robert Deatherage, a 30-year-old Army veteran who has battled addiction to pain pills and heroin since suffering severe injuries in Afghanistan, says he reached rock bottom a year ago when he holed up in an empty church and tried to kill himself. Twice.

“I was just so sick of being as sick as I was,” he says. He put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire. He says he then used two syringes to shoot all the drugs he had, but didn’t overdose.

Mr. Deatherage took the failure as a spiritual sign and walked to the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The facility didn’t have any space and turned him away, offering only a jacket from the lost and found and a phone number for a homeless veterans coordinator. After he picked up his disability check a few days later, he checked into a hotel where he knew other addicts, including veterans.

“It gets discouraging,” Mr. Deatherage says. “It makes it easier to just say, ‘F--- it, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.’ ”
read more here

But this is nothing new.

Veterans dying from overmedicationCBS News
By Jim Axelrod
September 19, 2013
(CBS News) Veterans by the tens of thousands have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with injuries suffered on the battlefield. Many of them seek treatment at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Now a CBS News investigation has found that some veterans are dying of accidental overdoses of narcotic painkillers at a much higher rate than the general population -- and some VA doctors are speaking out.
Five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left 35-year-old Army Spc. Scott McDonald with chronic back pain.
His wife Heather said over the course of a year, VA doctors in Columbus, Ohio prescribed him eight pain and psychiatric medications."It just got out of control," said Heather. "They just started pill after pill, prescription after prescription...and he'd come home with all brand-new medications, higher milligrams."

Then a VA doctor added a ninth pill -- a narcotic called Percocet. Later that evening, Heather came home from work and found Scott disoriented on the couch.
"And I asked him," Heather recalled, "'You didn't by chance by accident take too many pills, did you?' And he's like, 'No, no. I did what they told me to take, Heather.' I popped a pillow under his head and that's how I found him the next morning, exactly like that."
McDonald wasn't breathing. The coroner's report ruled his death accidental. He had been "overmedicated" and that he died from the combined effects of five of his medications.
read more here

But that wasn't new either

Veterans with PTSD more likely to get addictive painkillers despite the risks, VA study showsBy Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, March 6, 4:34 PM (2012)
CHICAGO — Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain, and the consequences can be tragic, a government study suggests.
These vets are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, but they’re two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain, according to the study, billed as the first national examination of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD who already had substance abuse problems were four times more likely to get these drugs than vets without mental health problems, according to the study.
Subsequent suicides, other self-inflicted injuries, and drug and alcohol overdoses were all more common in vets with PTSD who got these drugs. These consequences were rare but still troubling, the study authors said.read more here 

But that was nothing new either. 

Rise in drug prescriptions may signal abuseBy Gregg Zoroya - USA TodayPosted : Saturday Nov 1, 2008
The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions paid for by the government suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics, says Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.
“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.
In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army's most severely injured — aggressive efforts are underway to manage prescription drugs, says Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring use.

But that wasn't new either 

Autopsy: Mix of pain meds killed Irwin soldierThe Associated PressPosted : Friday Aug 22, 2008 8:08:04 EDT
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — An autopsy of a soldier who died while training at Fort Irwin has revealed she was killed by a combination of prescription drugs she was taking for pain.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department made the finding about the accidental death of Spc. Emily T. Ort, 24, of Willis, Texas.
“There is no evidence of suicide,” the report said. “The decedent did not have a history of chronic drug abuse.”
On May 3, Ort was discovered unresponsive in her sleeping bag and was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed a few days later, but the report was not released until this week.
Ort had acetaminophen, morphine, hydrocodone and gabapentin as well as anti-anxiety drugs Valium and oxazepam in her system, the report said.
The soldier was apparently taking Vicodin and Valium for injuries she sustained during a 2007 car accident.
The night before she died, Ort told her mother that her medication was stolen and her doctor prescribed morphine and a muscle relaxer as replacements, the report said.http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_irwindeath_082208/

I could keep going but I have such informed readers you get the point.

VA Dangerous Drugs

VA Docs Defied Opiate Rules in Treating Vets, Audit Finds
NBC News
BY BILL BRIGGS

VA medical centers defied some agency policies on supplying opiates to veterans in 2012, including simultaneously prescribing thousands of ex-troops with narcotic painkillers and psychoactive drugs -– a combination that’s been linked to lethal overdoses, a new audit shows.

The review, conducted by the independent Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG), found that 92.6 percent of veterans who are chronically prescribed opioid drugs (such as Oxycodone) also were prescribed benzodiazepines (such as Xanax and Valium) -– a mix “strongly associated with death from opioid overdose.”

The audit, which collected data from a population of about a half million veterans, was first reported on by the Center for Investigative Reporting. The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

In addition, about one third of the veterans prescribed opioids “were on take-home opioids for more than 90 days,” the audit showed.
read more here

But if you are outraged over this, then this will really get your blood boiling because yet again, history stops when reporters want it to. These reports go back to 2004.
Links to medications suspected with non-combat deaths

Prozac Platoon America's Medicated Army

Sen. Benjamin Cardin wants study on prescriptions-suicide link

Medicating the military

Marine died in his sleep; autopsy lists 27 medications

And then there is this one

VA awards new contract for debunked PTSD drug
BY BOB BREWIN 08/25/2011

This is the fourteenth story in an ongoing series.

The Veterans Affairs Department continues to issue contracts to purchase an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder despite research showing the drug, risperidone, is no more effective than a placebo.

Nextgov reported Aug. 22 that VA spent $717 million over the past decade to purchase risperidone, the generic name for Risperdal, a second-generation anti-psychotic drug originally developed by the Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson to treat severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

VA doctors prescribe the drug to treat PTSD, but a study by department researchers published Aug. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, "treatment with risperidone compared with placebo did not reduce PTSD symptoms."

Despite these findings, on Aug. 11, VA awarded a contract to Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. for more than 200,000 bottles of risperidone containing more than 20 million pills in multiple dosages. The announcement of the contract to the Morgantown, W.V., generic drug manufacturer did not provide a dollar value for the contract.

There are a lot more but you get the idea.

Veterans with PTSD more likely to get addictive painkillers

Veterans with PTSD more likely to get addictive painkillers despite the risks, VA study shows
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, March 6, 4:34 PM

CHICAGO — Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain, and the consequences can be tragic, a government study suggests.

These vets are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, but they’re two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain, according to the study, billed as the first national examination of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD who already had substance abuse problems were four times more likely to get these drugs than vets without mental health problems, according to the study.

Subsequent suicides, other self-inflicted injuries, and drug and alcohol overdoses were all more common in vets with PTSD who got these drugs. These consequences were rare but still troubling, the study authors said.
read more here

Patients, hospitals face shortages of some pain relief medications

Patients, hospitals face shortages of some pain relief medications
By Joe Smilor on February 22, 2009 3:00 PM
Periodic shortages of pain relief medications have caused problems in recent months for some area hospitals and the patients who rely on them.

On its Web site, the Food and Drug Administration reported the shortage of oxycodone immediate release tablets in 5, 15 and 30mg.

Erica Abbett, a spokeswoman for drugmaker Covidien, explained the shortage this way: "Currently there is an industrywide supply issue with oxycodone-related products. The situation is due to multiple factors, including two competitors' products being removed from the market because of recalls.

"Covidien has significantly increased our product output as a result of the supply issue, however we alone cannot meet the total demand for these products. We are working diligently to ensure that interruption of patient access to vital pain management products, like oxycodone, is minimized," Abbett said.
go here for more
http://www.insidesocal.com/news247/2009/02/patients-hospitals-face-shorta.html

Autopsy: Mix of pain meds killed Irwin soldier

Autopsy: Mix of pain meds killed Irwin soldier
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 22, 2008 8:08:04 EDT

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — An autopsy of a soldier who died while training at Fort Irwin has revealed she was killed by a combination of prescription drugs she was taking for pain.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department made the finding about the accidental death of Spc. Emily T. Ort, 24, of Willis, Texas.

“There is no evidence of suicide,” the report said. “The decedent did not have a history of chronic drug abuse.”

On May 3, Ort was discovered unresponsive in her sleeping bag and was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed a few days later, but the report was not released until this week.

Ort had acetaminophen, morphine, hydrocodone and gabapentin as well as anti-anxiety drugs Valium and oxazepam in her system, the report said.

The soldier was apparently taking Vicodin and Valium for injuries she sustained during a 2007 car accident.

The night before she died, Ort told her mother that her medication was stolen and her doctor prescribed morphine and a muscle relaxer as replacements, the report said.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_irwindeath_082208/

Company asks pharmacists, hospitals to return 65 drugs

Company asks pharmacists, hospitals to return drug
Associated Press
Published: Friday August 1, 2008


WASHINGTON -- A New Jersey company is asking pharmacists and hospitals to return all prescription drug products made at one of its facilities because it did not pass health authorities' standards.

A Food and Drug Administration inspection at the Little Falls, N.J., facility of Actavis Totowa LLC "revealed operations which did not meet the FDA's or Actavis' standards for good manufacturing practices," according to a company statement issued Friday.

The recall, only on the pharmacy and retail level, includes about 65 different prescription drugs, such as pain killers, antidepressants, diet medication and drugs for blood pressure and hypertension.

Only pharmacies and hospitals should return the prescription drugs. Patients who may have the drug should continue to take them in accordance with their prescriptions, the Morristown, N.J. company said in a release. The company said that suddenly stopping needed medication before obtaining replacement drugs may place patients at risk.

For more information on the recall, consumers can visit
(go here to see the list)
http://www.actavis.us/en/media+center/newsroom/articles/RecallFAQ.htm
Linked from RawStory