INDIANAPOLIS — Making opioids less available is not necessarily a good thing, especially for chronic pain patients.
Those patients feel they're being unfairly punished because of the attention addicts have received that has nothing to do with them.
Deb Smith, 68, takes Oxycodone twice a day to combat osteoporosis, bone spurs, and arthritis.
"After I started taking it under supervision from my doctor, I can enjoy life again," Smith said. "I can work. I can get out of bed. I can do things. I can function."
Smith is OK for now, but consider Melissa Lerner, her doctor suddenly stopped her pain medication, even though she has spinal stenosis, scoliosis, herniated discs, and knee surgery.
"I'm homebound. I had to quit working for the first time in my life. I had to apply for disability. I don't want to be disabled," Lerner said. "I wasn't disabled when I was on my medication. Most days, I'm just at home, in bed, or on the couch."
There weren't just patients at the rally; there were doctors present too. One carried a sign that said, 'doctors shouldn't be afraid of the government.'"
"There's been pressure from not only the DEA and the CDC but pressure from insurance companies that they will only fill a certain amount of morphine doses," Dr. Anthony Mims, physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor, said. "So, patients if they were on more than that before, are suffering because now their pain is not controlled."
That scenario is not acceptable for Johnna Magers who organized the rally.
"How do you take that away from someone who is trying to have a productive life. That pain medication gives it to them," Magers said. "Now they are saying, 'sorry, your life isn't anything. You can't be productive.' We are in America; come on."
The group wants to pursue legislation at the state level, and in Congress.
Meanwhile, one sign at the rally captured their message: 'Put A Leash on the DEA, and Stop Targeting Our Innocent Doctors.'
