This comes as news to me, but according to a report in the Buffalo News, the state of Washington cares about its addicts. It's setting out to "prevent excessive prescribing of narcotic painkillers."
In what will almost certainly result in even more limited administrtion of painkillers to patients who actually need them, the News synopsizes the program thusly:
Washington State's tougher measures will not apply to cancer pain, end-of-life care or acute pain after an injury or surgery. Instead, they reflect the growing array of state, federal and medical industry actions to grapple with an epidemic of addictions, overdoses and deaths arising from more liberal use of prescription narcotics for chronic ailments other than cancer, such as back pain.
It won't be easy.
Actually, this is probably the easiest thing imaginable. The answer is weed. Marijuana. Grass. Mary Jane. Reefer. Ganja. The herb.
The problem is, politicians and bureaucrats aren't actually interested in helping anyone but themselves or the monstrosity they spare no expense to defend and empower (using other people's money, of course) -- the state. They are the rulers. We are their bitch lovers. Get used to it.
Admitting that marijuana is unique in that it is by far the safest effective painkiller on the planet would mean ending the state's War on the Nonviolent. It would mean laying off almost 11,000 DEA agents. It would mean allowing peaceful human beings to profit from the drug trade as much as select politicians and their doting counterparts in the pharmaceutical industry.
It's a political issue, yo.
And yes, weed is also the preferred choice among cancer patients and those suffering through their final days. But we'll just keep that at secret. You know, at any expense.
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