Tag: cannabis

Death panels, opioid crisis and chronic pain

“The Law”

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it. Frederic Bastiat French Economist 1850

One hundred and sixth eight years since this was written about the French government we are seeing the exact same thing occur here in America. The opioid hysteria has created a barbaric, evil, and insidious regulation and severe restriction of pain medication while at the same time enriching a few who use the force of law to profit from the misery and pain of others.

I’ve been in chronic pain for over thirty years now. It all started with a severe case of Ulcerative Colitis that required a major surgery to save my life. It didn’t go well. That began my horrible and terrifying relationship with physical pain.

My main relationship in my life since I can remember has been pain. It is always with me, demands my attention, and requires me to attend to it day and night. It is persistent and unrelenting.

I’ve been fortunate to have doctors who’ve in the past believed that I shouldn’t suffer needlessly and provided me with pain medicine. This helped me to eke out, somewhat of a life, in between the hospital stays and surgeries. Even with pain meds I still hurt but as long as I know I can take one or two at night to rest and sleep I can endure the pain throughout the day.

That has all changed since the hysteria machine around opioids has been unleashed upon us. My GP was providing chronic pain management with opioids for the last three years. He stopped this year in large part, I believe, because of the fear of attracting unwanted attention from regulators.

What makes this so insidious is that he isn’t even in trouble for anything yet, and he chose to stop for fear of something that may or may not happen in the future. My pain is a certainty. It’s easier for doctors to say no then it is for them to take a risk. You’ll here some say they are afraid of losing their licenses but that to me is an excuse for not wanting to stand up for their patients and their supposed principles.

When good people don’t stand up, tyranny and injustice multiplies. I’m experiencing that myself with my recent attempts to obtain pain medicine. My GP referred me to a pain clinic. I called them and after a week of back and forth phone calls they finally decided they didn’t accept my “limited benefit plan”, didn’t accept new self-pay patients and didn’t treat GI patients.

I did ask them if they knew of any pain clinics that did treat people with GI related pain and they said no. So long story short I called all the doctors I’ve known for about thirty years and they were no help, I called about ten pain clinics and none accepted my insurance, and almost none treated GI related pain and they didn’t have anyone they could recommend me to. One did wish me the best of luck though.

I did find a couple on my own that would consider treating me but they couldn’t guarantee that the doctor would deem me worthy of a prescription for pain killers until he saw me. I’d have to come in for an initial assessment. In order to see the holy doctor I’ll have to shill out $375 – $600 for the first visit depending on which pain clinic I decide to go to. This is insanity.

On top of the initial charge for the “assessment” if they are so “merciful” to grant me one of their precious prescriptions for pain killers, I’ll have to come back for monthly visits like I’m some kind of goddamn parolee. And each monthly visit will run around $200.

I’ve seen this process of demonizing people in pain slowly developing over the course of my thirty plus year odyssey of pain. I remember when doctors were told they could no longer call in pain pill prescriptions, I remember the first time I heard a doctor express concern about the DEA when I asked for pain medicine, and I remember when I was forced to sign a pain contracts and get urine tested every 90 days like I was a convicted criminal. All of these incremental policies did nothing to ease my pain or make me “safer” from myself. Instead they are what has led us to where we are today.

The Law has been perverted to reap profits for the pharmaceutical industries, the doctors and the addiction industry. Their profits are paid for by the misery and pain of millions of Americans who have no lobbyists and have been abandoned by the medical community.

Besides the profits that those who benefit from this type of hysteria are raking in, I belief there is a dark undercurrent at work as well. We are rapidly approaching more and more regimented healthcare. Chronically ill folks like me are a drain on the system in the eyes of central planners. I do firmly believe there are those who believe in the tenets of centralized medicine who would prefer I was not around soaking up “healthcare resources”.

Pain pills are extremely cheap though. Last year including doctors visits for chronic pain management plus the cost of my pain medicine added up to around $600. Now I’m stuck with a tab, if I’m able to obtain a prescription, of around $3800. That is insane. But my surgeries and hospital stays have cost insurance companies millions. If I stick around I’ll more than likely need more surgeries and hospital stays.

When did it become okay to bully people in pain? When did it become okay to treat people in physical pain like criminals? When did it become okay to rape them with insane costs for doctor visits? When did it become okay to make people in pain ashamed or afraid to ask their doctor for pain medicine? When did it become okay for doctors to refuse to treat people in pain? When did it become okay to deny one of the only truly effective treatments medical doctors have at their disposal?

The options for people in pain today are worse then they’ve been since before the discovery of the effectiveness of the poppy plant to alleviate physical suffering thousands of years ago. Those who are in pain and denied or restricted pain medication are effectively being forced to live in the Stone Age.

I believe that those in chronic pain are being pushed into making some extremely difficult decisions. The choices are to find alternatives on the black market, try to continue in agony or end their life. All three are a death sentence handed down by the uncaring, ignorant and greedy individuals in the government and the medical industry.

Living in pain is like being in hell. The one description of hell I liken it to is not the fire and pitchfork type but the cold and desolate hell, where God is totally absent. If you believe that God represents all that is good in the world then living in physical pain is the absence of all of that.

Being in pain makes life unbearable. The equation that everyone makes each day is, “is the pain of life worth the results of your actions?” For me the answer is many times no.

A few years ago Sarah Palin (I’m not a fan) was lambasted for daring to suggest that Obamacare had provisions for a death panel in order to ration healthcare. Today we are seeing this concept put into action. Chronic pain patients are being denied the very treatment that would save their lives. The new opioid regulations are effectively a form of a “Death Panel” but it’s so diffused throughout the system no one takes responsibility for denying people in pain the relief they need to continue living.

I believe that a part of the medical community, some in the insurance industry and many in the government are all too happy to get rid of the chronic pain patient because they are easy targets, they soak up resources and remind them and others of the failures of modern medicine. Most chronic pain patients have had multiple surgeries or have an intractable disease that modern medicine can’t treat effectively. This is another driver of the propaganda pushing the opioid crisis narrative. The opioid hysteria is focusing on the wrong target. Pain patients aren’t the problem. Only about 1% or less become addicted. The opioid overdoses we hear so much about are really caused black market drugs laced with illicit fentanyl. Many pain patients are being pushed into this market by the increasing cost, time demands and humiliation required to obtain life saving pain medication. The very law meant to save lives is killing people while others make a tidy profit. (I’m not against profit. I’m against individuals and industries using the force of government to obtain it.)I’m not an addict. I’m just in pain. My abdomen hurts all the time. From adhesions pulling and stretching my insides to a pancreas/gall bladder/bile duct issue that hasn’t been properly diagnosed or treated, I suffer everyday of my life from the time I get up to the time I finally fall asleep.I wish I was stronger but the pain wins everyday. If I keep busy enough I can keep its shouting down to tolerable levels. But once I stop moving it returns like a bullhorn from hell. Pain medicine simply helps dial down the volume. The Law is meant to protect individual rights. It has been perverted today, as Bastiat wrote, to enrich a small group of people who use the force of the government to satisfy their greed while violating the rights of individuals. They are using the Law to violate my natural right to consume what I choose and to bear the responsibility of my choices. Pain medicine isn’t an evil that should be locked away behind armed government agents and doctors who are either scared or greedy, but should be available at the low cost the market puts on them for those who choose to take them. Physical pain creates a living hell for millions of Americans. It destroys hope, severs relationships, and poisons the mind. Pain medicine can help ease their physical and emotional suffering. I do have an appointment to see a pain doctor on April 4th. It will be at his discretion if he prescribes pain pills or not. That’s after I fork over $400 for the initial assessment. Where else do you give someone $400 for a service and don’t have a right or ability to know if the service you are seeking will be provided or not? It is insane how far this opioid hysteria has gone. On the surface the purpose of all these punitive and restrictive laws are to protect people from themselves.They are said to save lives but all they are doing is ruining the lives of millions of peaceful, productive and suffering fellow Americans whose bodies have already betrayed them. This further betrayal by the medical system has too many pain patients making the awful but understandable decision to end their suffering the only way they know how. They are being forced into taking their own lives due to the barbaric and unfeeling bureaucratic machine that cut them off from the one thing that allowed them to stay alive on this planet.Death is the only way out for those suffering from intractable pain if they are denied pain medicine. I’ve contemplated it in the past myself and have struggled with those type of thoughts during this stressful stretch of time while trying to find a doctor who will help me. I won’t go to the black market. I don’t trust it. So I can either suffer another ten days or so and hope that the doctor will find my suffering worthy or I can end my time here on planet Earth. I’ve tried alternative therapies like Kratom and Cannabis, both of which for me help with withdrawal symptoms, but not so much with the pain. I’m miserable tonight. I know I’ll wake up in pain and I’ll go to bed in pain tomorrow. It’s 4:00am and I have to get up at 6:30am to get ready for work. I’m so tired of hurting. I know if I kill myself those closest to me will be devastated. They like me for some reason even though I feel worthless, unreliable and unsociable most of the time. I known if I do end my life the little ones in my life would be most hurt. I read one time that if you have children in your life who love you and you commit suicide, it’s like hitting them in the head with a hammer. I won’t do that tonight. That’s why I’ll get up in a couple hours. That’s why I’ll continue on another day. Brad

Opioid prohibition is destined to fail

Prohibitions in this country don’t tend to stick. There is good reason for that. Humans want to be free to choose what to consume. Governments, do-gooders, and doctors will never change that.

Alcohol prohibition sparked the current War on Choice that we are currently suffering under. The campaign was puritanical in nature and the “social costs” of alcohol were frequently bandied about as a reason to ban it. But like all government interventions the Prohibition of Alcohol was a colossal failure. Instead of increasing morality in society it increased real crime.

Gangsters through violence became powerful and wealthy during Alcohol Prohibition. Governments grew more powerful as well. But the people got sick of the violence and the encroachment of Government into their lives and it was overturned.

But the philosophy and profits of prohibition were so appealing to those in power it would soon return. Once Alcohol Prohibition was gone the good people at the Bureau of Prohibition didn’t have anything to fight.

Henry Anslinger the head of the Bureau of Prohibition was determined to find a new target. It didn’t take him long to turn the puritanical racial attitudes that fueled the push to make alcohol illegal towards an evil weed, Marijuana.

Interestingly while Anslinger and The Bureau of Prohibition were busy busting up speakeasies he said that Cannabis didn’t harm people and didn’t make them violent. He changed his tune when his Department was axed. He became the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and was instrumental in getting Marijuana Prohibition established at the Federal level.

Thanks to Anslinger’s lies about the health risks of Marijuana and the dubious anecdotes he collected, Reefer Madness swept the nation. It was fueled by blatant racism and puritanical self righteousness that we still see echoes of in the current opioid crisis propaganda. But like all prohibitions, Marijuana Prohibition was destined to fail.

Unlike with Alcohol Prohibition, Marijuana Prohibition wasn’t ended at the Federal level. But it’s effectively over. Millions and millions of Americans have defied the Federal Government, rejected their lies and propaganda and continued to use Cannabis despite Federal Prohibition for over seventy years.

We live in an era where the people have defied the Federal Government and won. Eight States have fully legalized Marijuana and another 21 have some form of a Medical Marijuana programs even though the DEA still has it as a Schedule I drug.

From their website:

Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are:

heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote

People have seen through the lies of the government and the philanthropic tyrants. Cannabis is safe and extremely effective for millions of people for a myriad of health issues and for improving well-being. The health benefits are astounding and more and more are being discovered all the time.

The current opioid crisis is the latest in a long line of hysterias that have swept this country based on government propaganda and spread by a compliant media. Alcohol and Marijuana proceeded it and have been overturned completely at the Federal level or by defiance at the local level. Opioids will be no different in the coming years.

Millions of people safely use pain pills everyday to help ease their suffering. The current hysteria has all the hallmarks of the classic prohibition manias of the past. There is a strong moral disgust component, an us versus them mentality, and a healthy dose of ignorance thrown in.

Those who profit from prohibition are the ones pushing the opioid crisis hype as well as the philanthropic tyrants who believe they alone know how others should live. How sociopathic must a person be to tell someone who is in physical pain that they can’t have their pain relieved because there are a small percentage of people who may overdose on a similar type of medicine?

That makes absolutely no sense.

The two main problems cited as being the “opioid crisis” are deaths due to overdose and addiction.

The majority of the deaths are due to illicit fentanyl laced heroin caused in large part by the War on Drugs & the US governments complicity in growing, protecting & shipping Afghanistan poppies. Afghanistan became the number one grower of illicit poppies in the world after the US government invasion.

If the deaths aren’t due to bad heroin they are usually attributable to combination of drugs which are prescribed to someone else or illegal.

The second problem cites is the bogey man of addiction. This is the issue that sparks the puritanical self righteousness which fuels these types of hysterias. Those who are addicted are viewed as morally weak and depraved. And people live in fear of pain pills. It is almost as if pain pills are seen as demons who will possess anyone and cause them to do horrible things to get their “fix”.

This is totally irrational. In reality addiction has its basis in biology and not in demonology. Plus it’s extremely rare. Only about 2-3% of people have the predisposition for real addiction. In the near future we will be able to test for this and get those who need actual help instead of locking them up.

The answer proposed to the above two problems is to place draconian restrictions on opioids for people in pain. That’s the great answer from the enlightened elites. Make people suffer more. Brilliant!

Chronic pain patients aren’t overdosing on illicit heroin. That is unless they have had their pain pill allotment cut and they are still in pain. By further restricting access to prescription pain pills the government is forcing those in pain to look to the black market for relief.

Could they in fact be doing this on purpose to get more people buying Afghanistan Heroin?

And on top of the Opioid Prohibition currently taking shape the DEA wants to Schedule I Kratom. It’s a plant from Southeast Asia that has amazing properties that can help ease pain and eliminate opioid withdrawal symptoms. Plus it’s extremely safe despite the government propaganda to the contrary.

I myself have used it and it works. I’ve been in chronic pain for 30 years and have taken pain pills ever since. Unfortunately I’ve also had my supply cut do to this opioid insanity and I do run out before the end of the month depending on my pain level.

I’m not addicted but I am physically habituated to Narcotics like most people who’ve taken them for decades. Addiction and habituation are not the same. Now when I don’t have pain pills for 48 hours my body does react in a negative way.

It’s extremely unpleasant. Being in pain plus going through physical withdrawal is almost unbearable. Kratom takes away 80-90% of the terrible withdrawal symptoms and eases my pain as well. It’s so empowering to know I have an option if I run out of pain medicine or can’t get a prescription refilled. And of course the DEA hates this and wants to ban it.

More prohibition is not the answer. Making people suffer in pain is not the answer. If the DEA wanted to save tens of thousands of lives they would legalize heroin tomorrow and leave Kratom alone.

Prohibition is big business not only for the government but also for crony capitalists who reap huge profits by filling their prisons. The DEA, FDA, CDC have their budgets at stake. Local police departments rely on grants and civil asset forfeiture sharing with the DEA. Unions who represent law enforcement and prison workers want more people in prison. The private companies that now run government stocked prisons have contracts requiring that 90% or more of the cells have to be filled or they receive increased compensation to make up the difference. Rehab centers want more and more people in their facilities as well. Each arrest means profit for someone. Prohibition fills the pockets of politicians, prison owners, Union Leaders, and law enforcement.

Don’t forget that the media makes a ton off of this as well. Fear sells. False sense of security sells as well. It always has. Alcohol Prohibition and Marijuana Prohibition were accomplished with complicity of the media.

There are also profits that go unseen but are just as powerful a motivator that keeps Prohibition in place. Black Market profits are laundered through the largest banks in the world, the CIA uses them to fund their dark operations, bribes from them line the pockets of politicians, law enforcement officers and judges.

Prohibition accomplishes none of what it promises and never will. Crime, corruption and violence multiplies because of it. Anyone who talks of the “societal cost” of the opioid crisis doesn’t understand the cost of chronic pain, the cost of the prison system, the cost of the War on Drugs, the cost of compliance by doctors and pharmacies, the hours wasted by patients who are forced to go back to the doctor to get a physical prescription, the cost of mandatory drug testing for pain patients, the cost of the SWAT teams, and the cost of the people living in fear of a tyrannical government who is forcing them to live in pain or risk going to prison.

The current opioid hysteria is being used as a way to rebrand the War on Drugs and ensure the increased budgets of the DEA, DOJ, CDC and FDA. The War on Drugs is extremely unpopular and people are questioning if it should even be waged. The majority of people know that the powers that be were lying for decades about the dangers of Cannabis. Just like Harry Anslinger in the 1930’s needed a new target after the ending of Alcohol Prohibition the DEA needed to swing attention away from the failure of Marijuana Prohibition to a new target – enter the Opioid Crisis.

People want to be free to make their own choices. That will never change. Prohibition of any kind is a battle that can never be won. Look at drugs inside of prisons. The State can’t even keep them out of secure buildings that they have 100% control over.

That is why the opioid crisis propaganda is not focusing on illegal opioids. Instead the target is doctors and people in pain. The powers that be are issuing new restrictive guidelines for doctors to limit the prescribing of pain pills. It’s the same reason why cops give speeding tickets instead of going after known criminals. The criminals have guns and they payoff the cops. Everyday citizens caught “speeding” are easy pickings just like people in pain are.

The sick and suffering are being targeted because they are an easy target. Those sick and suffering don’t give up easy though. Opioids are effective and safe. People in pain shouldn’t be forced to suffer because of politicians colluding with bureaucrats, prison owners, and law enforcement unions to brand them as criminals because they seek the most effective tool to eliminate their pain which are opioids.

A backlash is occurring against Opioid Prohibition though and it will continue to grow in proportion to the degree its enforced. Make no mistake the government would love to outlaw all opioids. That would keep the prisons full, law enforcement budgets fat, and politicians pockets filled with bribes and kickbacks.

Opioid Prohibition is destine to end just as Alcohol and Marijuana Prohibition did. People will see through the lies of the do-gooders, the social reformers, the philanthropic tyrants, the government doctors, the corrupt politicians and the ambitious bureaucrats and will end it at the Federal level, at the local level or just ignore it. If there is demand there will always be supply.

The problem with the philosophy of prohibition is that it has no logical end. Everything you ingest causes some harm. The very air you breathe coupled with the food you eat is causing oxidative damage in your body that will eventually contribute to your death.

Will the prohibition pushers next target be food? Will we all be required to have a prescription for the food we buy? Why not? That would be inline with the philosophy of prohibition.

The societal cost of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are thousands of times more than the cost of individuals using opioids. Food plays an enormous role in these deadly and debilitating diseases. If the same logic for opioid prohibition is to be used to help the most people than it should be applied to all products with wheat and sugar, and vegetable oil in them. They all contribute to causing so called lifestyle diseases.

And all other foods would be by prescription only of course. They could be called food pyramid prescriptions. Only the enlightened elite know what’s best for us. Think of a supermarket that has all the food locked behind shelves. You have to present a government approved doctor written list of the foods you are allowed to buy. That is the future we are heading to if the do-gooders, the social planners, and the politicians continue with using prohibition as a means to restrict freedom for a nebulous purpose such as lowering “societal costs”.

If you think that could never happen go and try to buy Sudafed off the shelf. That’s right you can’t it’s locked up behind the counter and you have to show ID and sign for it. Remember how Meth was the biggest threat the United States ever faced back in 2005? Taking away your ability to buy Sudafed without being tracked didn’t have the results they were hoping for. Last year alone Americans bought about $13 billion worth of Meth.

The philosophy behind prohibition is truly evil and has no logical end. If societal costs are the only measure for the use of force against peaceful individuals than all behavior is on the table for possible prohibition. Driving, owning firearms, swimming, showering, or other “dangerous” activities could be next.

The social engineers are never satisfied. They think they can perfect society if only they can use the force of government to implement their utopian schemes. They blame every ill of society on individual freedom while they think the actions of the government are perfect or at worse haven’t gone far enough. In fact they clamor for more government action never less. They believe they are the enlightened and educated elite who have a duty to save the ignorant masses from themselves. Of course by doing so they gain power, prestige and money.

Prohibition is based upon the belief that individuals don’t own themselves and shouldn’t have a choice of what to ingest because it could have “societal costs”. And how do they propose to do this? By making criminals out of peaceful individuals.

Taking pain pills is not a crime against humanity. True crime is violence committed against a person or his property. Ingesting a pill doesn’t qualify as a crime. Limiting access to a drug that eases physical suffering is. Using the force of government to force people to endure pain is tantamount to torture. The personal cost of pain is infinitely more expensive than any so called societal cost can ever be.

Americans are the only nation in the history of the world founded on a revolutionary idea: that our rights come from our humanity and not from the state. This fire of freedom still burns brightly in the hearts of millions. Prohibition of Opioids will end by voting or by massive civil disobedience.

One possible peaceful way to effectively end Opioid Prohibition is for every person in chronic pain to grow their own poppy plants in their backyard or indoors under lights. (I of course don’t advocate breaking the law)

If there was (hypothetically of course) a peaceful movement that encouraged and helped everyone who wanted to control the means to ease their physical suffering; to grow poppy flowers, Opioid Prohibition would be impossible enforce.

Every backyard would have a few of these plants and every individual who chose to take control of easing his or her own physical pain, would have on hand the most effective mix of compounds humans have every discovered for eliminating pain, the sap of the poppy.

It was the underground Cannabis Cultivation culture that greatly helped end Marijuana Prohibition. In fact one day they were “illegal growers” and after legalization they were now “legal growers”. It can happen that fast.

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A powerful backyard pharmcacy could be created by growing poppy plants, different strains of Cannabis, and medicinal mushrooms including the magic kind. If you’ve ever grown your own food you know the amazing satisfaction and power you feel being able to feed yourself directly from your own effort. Now think what it will feel like when you can ease your physical suffering from the sap of a poppy plant you grow in your medicinal garden.

That my friend is how you fix healthcare. It’s with more freedom not less.

The poppy plant is a miracle of nature. It has eased the physical suffering of millions and millions of people. Very few ever become addicted and even less overdose on “legal” or “illegal” opioids. Humans have made choices about what to ingest long before the FDA, DEA or any other government agency existed. People and poppies go back thousands and thousands of years.

The backlash is coming. Governments could in the past get away with lying but no more. People are too informed and too connected through the internet. You can see groups banding together online because pain transcends artificial political boundaries.

Every individual has an innate right to consume what they choose and to be responsible for their actions. Pain pills aren’t a special class of property. They shouldn’t be locked behind a counter, you shouldn’t be required to obtain a prescription from a doctor to buy them and once you own them you should do with them what you choose.

Until we have true Medicinal Freedom in this country the less government intervention in the healthcare choices the better. Ending the War on people in pain is a great place to start.

Brad MILLER

Fellow Human

FDA is wrong about Kratom

Last month the Commissioner of the FDA Dr. Scot Gotlieb issued a press release concerning Kratom. Who would have thought a piece of government propaganda would be full of lies, misrepresentations and authoritarian arrogance.

https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm584970.htm

Kratom must be something really horrible and dangerous if the FDA and DEA want to ban it, right?

Kratom is a plant that grows in Southeast Asia. There are many different strains that have helped people relieve pain, fatigue, depression and manage the symptoms of opioid withdrawal for centuries.

I personally have used Kratom as a adjunct pain reliever and to help with opioid withdrawal symptoms. I have found it very effective with no side effects.

What’s ironic is that I started taking Kratom because of the DEA and the FDAs actions last year. If the DEA hadn’t attempted to classify Kratom as a Schedule I drug I wouldn’t have found the hundreds of compelling and passionate videos of folks telling their story about how it’s changed their lives for the better.

The entire recent press release from the head of the FDA has no specifics about why Kratom should be illegal. He stresses it should be illegal because of a smattering of calls to Poison Control, 36 deaths which weren’t caused by Kratom and the fact that there is no scientific evidence for its efficacy and safety.

There is in fact evidence that it is safe and effective. In fact you can go online right now and do what I did before deciding to take Kratom and see the thousands of videos online in which individuals detail how they’ve greatly helped by it. I don’t think the commissioner did this. For thousands of years this plant has been used safely.

Dr. Gotlieb doesn’t want individuals to take Kratom because it’s unapproved. Well Cannabis is also unapproved but it’s used by millions of people everyday and has been used by humans for at least 5000 years. How long has the FDA been around?

Kratom is no different. In fact every adult has a natural right to choose what he or she consumes. We don’t need his permission to do so.

I trust thousands of years of indigenous use and the thousands of testimonials online that Kratom can help with serious conditions like pain and depression. The internet has destroyed the monopoly on medical information once held by those in power. He does however fail to talk about the thousands and thousands that have died from approved drugs since the FDA was created.

Thirty six deaths have been blamed on Kratom. Of these the autopsies are problematic and others will not be released to the public. Millions of people in this country and around the world take this plant medicine without dying. If were as unsafe as he claims hundreds or thousands would be dead. That’s just not the reality.

He further implies that only the FDA can keep Americans safe and ensure they are taken care of by the medical system. He fails to talk about the 250,000 deaths caused by medical errors each year by government licensed healthcare providers. He might want to spend some time on that.

This entire press release besides attacking Kratom is also an attack on anyone who desires to exercise medicinal freedom. This press release and the actions it describes are meant to keep people within government controlled healthcare and the pharmaceutical pipeline so they become dependent on the power of the prescription pad.

The hysteria around the risks of Kratom and the so called opioid crisis is being spread as a way to rebrand the immensely unpopular War on Drugs.

The compounds that make Kratom effective are in fact being being studied because they don’t have the same abuse and addiction potential as prescription opioids. That being said the rate of actual addiction with opioids is less than 3% of users.

If Dr. Gotlieb wanted to help those with addiction and with managing opioid withdrawal he would be encouraging the use of Kratom. There is nothing I’ve found and thousands and maybe millions of others have as well, a more effective means of alleviating the misery of opioid withdrawal symptoms.

All Dr. Gotlieb needs to do is spend an hour watching the videos of people crying when they explain how Kratom helped them kick heroin. There is a quote that I heard Dan Carlin say and that is “quantity has a quality all its own”. Even though those people and myself weren’t part of a double blind placebo study we know it has helped eliminate opioid withdrawal symptoms.

He believes along with the upper echelons of the FDA and DEA to determine what I should ingest and that I am too stupid to figure out what dosages to take. I figured out the right dosage of Kratom through personal experimentation, from the advice from the local health food shop and from those sharing their experiences in online videos. People aren’t as helpless, stupid or incompetent as the FDA Commissioner fears

Throughout the press release he admonished we the public that we should only go to government licensed health care providers and only use approved drugs. I myself have been chronically ill for 30 years. In that time I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals and going to doctors. Today I’m still sick and in chronic pain everyday. I like millions of other Americans are tired of the traditional paternal Medical system and know that we can make our own health choices without government interference.

In the press release he misleads with statistics. He cites the tenfold increase in calls to poison control. In reality there were 26 calls in 2005 and a whopping 660 calls in 2015 representing about .003 percent of the 3 million total calls to poison control per year. And 93% of those calls were concerning minor side effects.

To further put these 660 calls concerning Kratom to Poison Control in perspective, they received this year alone 9996 calls for kids being exposed to laundry detergent and 17,000 calls about kids and hand sanitizer. He deliberately mislead the American people to gin up support for this immoral and criminal attack on Kratom.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6529a4.

http://www.aapcc.org/alerts/laundry-detergent-packets

He also mentions the 32 deaths associated with Kratom. What he doesn’t mention is that zero deaths have been linked to Kratom being used by itself. All of these deaths occurred when a individual ingested multiple substances.

Next he laments the lack of research and urges those who support the uses of Kratom to submit drugs containing Kratom through the FDA approval system. This was before he bragged about how his agency has overseen the voluntary destruction of hundreds of shipments of Kratom and vowed to stop them all.

It’s a catch-22 for researchers. Do the research but without the plant. It’s the same issue researchers have dealt with since Cannabis Prohibition was passed. The FDA would also love to have supporters of Kratom abandon their position that its a safe and natural supplement and not a drug. If those who support Kratom they need to keep it out of the FDA Machine.

How can anyone trust the FDA or the DEA? They have constantly lied to the public about Cannabis, MDMA, and psilocybin Mushrooms.These same institutions are using their tried and true playbook to stop individuals from taking safe and effective natural medicines and driving them by force to doctors who have the power of the prescription pad.

The evidence is mostly anecdotal now but more and more research is showing it is effective at pain relief, helping ease anxiety and depression as well as treat opioid withdrawal symptoms. If the DEA and FDA bam Kratom it will be almost impossible for researchers to study its effects.

Here is a scientific analysis using the DEA’s own 8 Factor criteria from The American Kratom Association. In it Kratom clears all 8 categories and proves using their own criteria that it should be legal and left alone.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/americankratomassociation/pages/21/attachments/original/1485630505/Henningfield_Eight_Factor_Analysis.pdf?1485630505

The FDA urges supporters p Kratom to use their botanical drug products approval process which in reality is designed to allow big pharma to patent compounds found in plants. This is a clear attempt to stop individuals from buying Kratom and forcing people to buy instead pharmaceuticals based on the plant.

The same process is going on with Cannabis. Just like with Cannabis I believe that taking the whole Kratom leaf is the best way to go instead of using extracts. Kratom has many different compounds that work in my opinion synergistically just like the cannabinoids do in Cannabis. Kratom is a plant medicine that people have been using for thousands of years. Millions of people have taken it and the safety profile far exceeds the majority of drugs approved by the FDA.

The real point to his entire speech is that the American people are too stupid to make their own healthcare decisions. Only government licensed doctors dispensing government approved drugs can be used by those who are sick and suffering. There is no public. There are only individuals. And thousands of individuals have found Kratom to be effective at easing their suffering and making life more tolerable.

Do you think politicians have your best interest at heart? Do you think the FDA is not in league with pharmaceutical companies?

Do you think that the FDA’s arrival process is meant to protect individuals or protect the profits of pharmaceutical companies?

What if I don’t want the FDA to have the authority to protect me? What if I want to live in a country where my natural right to consume what I choose is respected and I can buy any man made compound or natural medicine to ease my suffering or assuage my symptoms as I see fit? He doesn’t address this question.

I don’t want him or any other bureaucrat helping to prevent a substance I know to be safe and effective from getting a grip on me. What he is definitely not concerned about is what does have a grip on me which is chronic pain and a medical system that treats me like a child and a criminal at the same time.

As an adult in the so called land of the free, a nation built on the bedrock of natural rights which includes along with the Freedom of Speech the Freedom of consumption, I like every other adult own myself and I can choose to ingest a substance and bear the consequences.

The oxygen you’re breathing right now and the food you ate today will eventually kill you. The oxidative stress metabolism causes creates free radical molecules that reek havoc on your body. They destroy enzymes that protect your DNA and cause lipid peroxidation which is linked to causing over 200 hundred diseases including Heart Disease and Cancer, the two biggest killers in this country.

No one gets out of this world alive. While we are here we shouldn’t be restricted in what substance we use to make our stay here on Earth more enjoyable. When you are sick and suffering the last thing you need is Dr. Scott Gotlieb or any other bureaucrat of the FDA or DEA or any other agency standing between you and relief. Keep Kratom legal and legalize all drugs!

Brad Miller

Advocate of Medicinal Freedom

Roles Reversed

I’ve been chronically unwell for the last 30 years. During that time I’ve endured 20 surgeries, 40 bowel obstructions, a permanent ileostomy and for the last few years pancreatitis attacks. Through all of it from my search for a diagnosis at age 11 through to my last stint in the hospital in May of this year, my mom has been there for me. Now I’m getting to repay a small amount of the debt that I owe her. Our roles have been reversed.

In September she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, has had a mastectomy, a removal of her reconstructed breast, tens of doctors appointments, a port put in and had her first chemo treatment last week. Her surgeries, her chemo treatment and her doctors are in a hospital that’s right across the street from the hospital I’ve gone to since I was 11. Now I’m the one driving her up north to some of her appointments to north of Atlanta so she can get well.

Helping mom heal has been just as healing for me.  Over the years mom has invested so much of her time and energy into my mere survival that I’m grateful I’m able to help her now in her time of need. One of my biggest fears when she was first diagnosed was that I wouldn’t be of any help, and I would be unable to step up and be at least a partial care giver. I was struggling horribly with debilitating pain when she was first diagnosed. I was in the midst of months of pain due to pancreatitis caused by a gallstone.

My GI doctor during this time wanted me to have surgery but I refused. Instead I started a course of cannabis capsules and in about ten days the pain was gone. I’d had that horrible pain for at least two months straight. Before I started the cannabis, I would sleep in the bathtub  at night because the hot water along with oxycodone was the only way I could find some relief. Then one Saturday it just stopped. And this was a couple weeks out from mom’s surgery. I knew if i had surgery I’d been unable to help her. I’m glad I made that call.

I owe my life to my mom not only for giving birth to me but for helping keep me alive through all the trials of surgery and chronic pain over the last 30 years. This year I became a Primal Health Coach and mom was my first client. I live with mom and I do most of the grocery shopping and I’ve cooked the majority of the meals since I’ve moved in. Mom has lost nearly 100 pounds in a year. Her doctor told her that for women who are overweight it’s harder to detect small tumors in a mammogram.

Her cancer was super aggressive and if they hadn’t caught the tumors when they did it could have been a whole different outcome. Her doctor said that losing the weight could have saved her life.  I’m grateful I’ve been able to play a small part in helping get her cancer detected as well with her recovery and ongoing journey now with getting through chemo.

Love isn’t about a scale to be balanced. It’s not about clearing up a “debt”. Mom taught us all that love is unconditional and that it’s not a word, it’s an action. During her recent bout with cancer all of our family have been able to show mom how much we all love her by helping take her to the doctor, sit with her during chemo, cook for her and help her get through the nights of bone pain and nausea. We are doing nothing more than merely acting as a mirror reflecting back a small amount of the love she’s always shown us.

Experiencing the care giver role recently has given me a new respect for what mom and what my family have gone through during these many years of my surgeries, illness and all the uncertainty that goes along with it. In the end we do what we must in the midst of the uncertainty of illness and pain, and we are able to endure because of those that love us most.

Adhesions, Exercise and Bowel Obstructions

I’ve been hospitalized many times due to small bowel obstructions caused by the combination of adhesions and exercise. The paradox I find myself in is that when I attempt to get stronger I can actually end up becoming a lot weaker. I’ve had a bunch of abdominal surgeries that have left me with a ton of adhesions, three severe narrowings in my small intestine and an ileostomy. Whenever I begin to feel better I have to be extremely careful how much I exercise or else I can end up balled up on the floor in excruciating pain.

I’m not a doctor and this protocol has been helpful for me. If you think you are having a blockage (painful cramping, nausea, vomiting and no or limited output) call your doctor or go to the emergency room. I’ve had almost 30 years of experience with bowel obstructions caused by adhesions and I know when to go to the emergency room. Once I reach that point of the panicking pain I do go to the emergency room. But this protocol I’ve come up with has helped me to avoid reaching that point and kept me from having my guts completely shut down on many occasions.

Adhesions are the number one cause of small bowel obstructions. And for me any exercise that uses the abdominal muscles causes my adhesions to pull and cause extreme pain and inflammation. This inflammation can then cause further problems with the narrowings and that’s when the blockage can occur. There are no good solutions for adhesions. I’ve been advised by my surgeon that he could go in and fix the narrowings and clear out the adhesions but it only had a 50/50 chance of improving anything. And every time they go in more adhesions are actually created. I’ve held off having another surgery because I’ve learned how to manage the adhesions I already have.

I have found a few things that have helped me to manage my adhesions while still striving to get stronger. I am in the process of getting over a bowel obstruction that occurred in May along with a severe case of pancreatitis.  Now I feel well enough to start exercising. I’ve been doing pull ups lately. And I’ve had two instances in the last two weeks that could have led to complete bowel obstructions but I was able to get output flowing without going to the hospital. Through breathing techniques, epsom salt hot baths, abdominal massage, and cannabis oil I’ve been able to stay out of the hospital these last few times while still being able to get stronger.

The breathing techniques I’ve found most helpful are pulled from The Wim Hof method and from a Ted Talk by Alan Watkins. Wim Hof has a whole program of breathing and cold exposure exercises that help with resetting the mind body connection and increasing one’s capacity to control the autonomic functions of the body. I’ve used the Wim Hof method which consists of breathing in deeply and exhaling only a little, then repeating this for up to thirty breathes many times in dealing with pain and also with improving bowel motility. At the end of the thirty breathes you take a big deep breathe in and exhale completely twice then hold your breathe with empty lungs for as long as you can. I’ve found this technique to be very helpful in getting my bowels moving again, relieving soreness from inflammation and reducing felt pain.

http://www.wimhofmethod.com

The other method of breathing taken from Alan Watkins is one I do all the time. It’s a simple exercise that you can do anywhere. I use it to create a calm and peaceful mental state as well as help get my bowels moving and lessening pain. It is simply breathing in for 3 or 4 seconds then breathing out for 6-7 seconds. The amount of time of the inhale and exhale is your choice but it must be consistent. And the force of breathe should be consistent as well. Do this for at least three cycles and focus on your heart while your breathing. It usually takes me two sets of three to get some noticeable relief. By the fifth cycle my mind is clearer and my body more relaxed. By the sixth breath I am feeling better. I do this exercise when I get up in the morning, while I’m driving, as well as when I’m in a lot of pain.

These two breathing techniques have been an amazing tool that I’ve used to help keep me out of the hospital and to greatly improve my experience of living. These techniques help to reduce inflammation in my body and in my brain. The heart sends signals to the brain all the time. By breathing deliberately in these ways we calm the heart and this in turn calms the mind.  I read today that “Meditation will be the next health revolution” and at the heart of meditation is breathing. When I use these techniques it calms the brain and the body and helps to get my system working again.

Along with the breathing I also have found epsom salt hot baths to be extremely effective when I am hurting or on the verge of a small bowel obstruction. I’m always low on Magnesium and this mineral is critical for people who have ilesotomies because low levels can create problems with intestinal motility.  When I’m in the hospital due to a small bowel obstruction I always get tons of magnesium through my I.V. The large amount of magnesium in epsom salt also helps to relieve muscle soreness.  When my abdomen is inflamed from exercise it creates stress throughout my body. I am unable to relax even when I’m laying on the couch or in bed. But after an hour soak in hot water filled with epsom salts I feel better. When the abdominal cramping gets really bad with a bowel obstruction that’s brewing I take off my bag and just sit in the hot bath with toilet paper over the stoma and I breath. I also change positions in the tub regularly, lift my legs up, pull my knees to my chest, and massage my abdomen that correspond to where the narrow areas are that help to get things moving. This has helped me on more than one occasion to get my guts working again

http://www.tummytemple.com/massage/abdominal-self-massage.html (I’ve not tried these yet but I’m starting them tonight)

The extremely hot water also helps to shock my nervous system. Even when I’m in a lot of pain the almost too hot to stand water, is somewhat painful and creates a tingling sensation that shoots through my entire nervous system. This is momentary but does help to give a modicum of relief and if you’ve had a bowel obstruction or suffered from abdominal adhesion pain you know that is a welcome feeling. With the nervous system occupied with the overwhelming sensation of heat it distracts my mind from the abdominal pain. I’ve found this also helpful when dealing with withdrawals from pain pills and dealing with pain from pancreatitis.

The breathing and the bath have helped me tremendously. And recently I’ve added another tool in helping me to avoid hospitalization and that’s cannabis oil. I take up to four infused Cannabis Coconut oil Capsules per day depending on my pain and inflammation level. It has become a regular part of my pain management strategy and it has been a life changer. Cannabis is a powerful anti-inflammatory. For instance last night I had horrible pain due to a previous exercise session as well as a very slow exit time for my ileostomy due to the inflammation from adhesions being pulled on. After doing my routine of breathing and taking a hot bath with epsom salt I took four of the cannabis capsules. After a couple of hours the pain was improved and I was able to get some sleep. I woke up feeling great this morning. The soreness and pain are almost gone. In the past if I had a partial bowel obstruction or exercise induced adhesion pain I would be sore for at least a week. But after taking the cannabis capsules the inflammation is nearly gone today. Cannabis is an amazing plant. It is a medicine that helps me sleep, helps relieve pain, helps relieve inflammation, helps me to relax,  helps me with anxiety and helps me to live a fuller life.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2828614/

There are almost no treatments out there for adhesions and small bowel obstructions from the medical field besides bed rest, pain management and surgery . But I’ve created my own treatment protocol that has helped tremendously. I no longer fear working out as I did before. I no longer feel powerless when the pain and inflammation comes due to my adhesions or when my output begins to slow. By simply breathing in a different way, taking a hot bath with epsom salt along with self-massage of my abdomen, and taking cannabis capsules I have found a powerful anti-inflammatory protocol that has helped me weather many potentially devastating bowel obstructions and sleepless nights. This has saved me not only thousands of dollars in medical bills but also hours of mental and physical suffering and has saved my family from having their lives disrupted as well. It also empowers me to know that I have powerful tools that can help me to feel better and live a better life. These techniques aren’t 100% effective and I know that I’ll be back in the hospital one day due to a bowel obstruction. But hopefully by using these tools it will be a long time in the future and I’ll have done a lot of living before it happens again.

This routine I use to help get over severe abdominal soreness due to adhesions, avoiding  bowel obstruction, or to help sooth a pancreatitis attack also works wonders for everyday life. I have inherently a ton of inflammation due to adhesions and scaring as well as the state of my small intestine and autoimmune conditions. I’ve begun taking a hot epsom bath soak almost every night even when output is normal as well as one or two cannabis capsules. I also do my breathing exercises throughout the day  for mental calmness and peace of mind and physical relief. These are tools and practices I will do for the rest of my life. I’ve had over 50 bowel obstructions , some requiring hospital stays and some requiring surgery. I wonder how many of those bowel obstructions and surgeries I could have avoided if I discovered this protocol thirty years ago.

Brad Miller

My health is my responsibility

 

 

Why I shop at Kroger

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Kroger has Simple Truth Organic products on sale a lot. These were 2 for $5.

I used to be a huge fan of shopping at Publix. I felt that they were the best grocery store in town. After I moved two years ago I began shopping at my local Kroger and my opinion changed. This move also coincided with my renewed commitment to use food as a way to help me feel better and improve my health.  As I began to investigate more of the role nutrition has on my health I began buying more and more organic products. Kroger has an Organic Section that is growing and their own Natural/Organic Brand “Simple Truth” is outstanding and is revolutionizing the availability of organic food and organic personal care products.

http://www.simpletruth.com

The Simple Truth brand is both a natural product line and organic product line. There was some controversy last year about some Simple Truth products containing GMO ingredients. That was concerning their Simple Truth Natural line I believe. That is why I buy mostly The Simple Truth Organic stuff and I always read labels. For instance The Simple Truth Traditional Spaghetti Sauce had soy bean oil in it. I didn’t buy it. Instead I read labels until I found one that didn’t include GMO ingredients or vegetable oil. The consumer is still responsible for reading labels. The Simple Truth Brand Organic products are a great way for me to save money and is a better choice than driving hours to go to my nearest Whole Foods.

http://www.businessinsider.com/krogers-affordable-organic-food-2015-9

Kroger is not perfect and there are many Simple Truth stuff I don’t buy. But the products I do buy I think are superior in quality and taste to non-organic brands.  Take for instance their  Simple Truth Organic Cream Cheese and their Sour Cream. Before my pancreatitis was kicking my ass  I could eat the sour cream by the spoonful. It is extremely think and tasty and different from any other Sour Cream I’ve ever tried. Other Simple Truth products I like are the Organic Chicken Breasts, Organic Frozen Blueberries and Simple Truth Artesian water that has a ph of 7.6. For the last two months I’ve been drinking almost exclusively Icelandic Glacial Water and the Simple Truth Artesian Water.

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Simple Truth Artesian Water with a ph of 7.6

I believe that this has been one of the reasons my psoriasis has greatly improved and why I’m feeling better than I have for months. Also I buy Simple Truth Organic potatoes. They are smaller than traditionally grown potatoes and they go bad faster. But I believe buying organic is worth the extra price and is still a better value for my health even though the product could spoil faster. The Simple Truth grassed beef is something I’ve bought a lot of in the past as well. I used to buy that along with White Pasture’s Grass-Fed ground beef. The combination was delicious. I find more of the products I want to use at Kroger than any other grocery store in my area.

(White Oaks Patures is a local family run farm in Georgia who believes in treating animals well and feeding them what they are designed to eat. I’m a big fan.)

http://www.whiteoakpastures.com

This is a great video that explained what happened when a family ate only organic.

 

I also choose to shop at my local Kroger not only for their lower priced organic selection but also because of the people and their operating hours. The women behind the Deli counter are just outstanding and those who help with checkout are as well. I normally use self-checkout but they always have someone there to help with a smiling face.  My schedule is not normal. Depending on how I’m feeling I might be up at 7:00am because I didn’t sleep the night before and need to go to get Organic Grapefruit juice because of a pancreatitis flare up. Or if I’m up late I can go to my local Kroger up until 1:00am to buy more high ph water. This is huge for people who have medical issues who need certain food products that help them feel better and do not keep normal hours. No matte what time I go the folks are always helpful, kind and smiling.

I’ve been extremely sick for the past few months and now I’m feeling much better. But during those times I felt awful I still tried to get out of the house each day and the one place I would go is my local Kroger. For someone who is chronically ill or suffering from chronic pain having a friendly safe place to go to is so important. Some days my shopping at Kroger would be my only contact with other people. I went in there the other day and the Store Manager let me know I dropped a dollar on the floor while I was at the deli counter. Before that I saw him interact with the women working in the deli and he was kind and respectful. You could tell they respected him as well. Those small interactions matter and create an atmosphere that is enjoyable to be in. When I’m sick I need all the help I can get and I need to be around positive energy. On top of treating each other well and friendly with customers, they are also extremely responsive. Before I started buying the Icelandic Glacial Water or knew about the Simple Truth Artesian water I bout Essentia water. When I told the lady who takes care of the Organic Section that I was buying a lot of it she started ordering more and I was always able to get it.

One of the reasons I don’t shop at Publix any more is that one of the owners of Publix gave $800,000 to an anti-cannabis campaign in Florida.  The daughter of the founder of Publix gave to a group that stopped Medical Cannabis Law being passed in 2012 and they are still trying to keep Cannabis illegal in Florida. She currently owns 5% of Publix and is worth a reported $1.8 billion.  I’ve not totally researched Kroger’s donations and in the future I might find that they are a company I don’t want to support. For the mean time I will continue to shop at Kroger and improve my health by buying Simple Truth Organic products and other organic products they offer.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/publix-heiress-donates-800-000-to-fight-medical-marijuana-legalization-in-florida-8631552

I don’t go out of my way to boycott a company because I’m sure every big company does something I don’t believe in but legalizing cannabis is something I strongly believe in. I’ve struggled with chronic pain and autoimmune disease since I was twelve. And I’ve found Cannabis helpful in dealing with my symptoms but I’ve had to travel to Denver twice to find that out. And its because people support politicians and groups that are working to keep Cannabis illegal I’ve spend over $6000 on travel and other expenses. To give money to an anti-cannabis group is an attack on people who are chronically ill and are suffering. It makes their lives harder. Cannabis Prohibition and those who support it are also attacking every individual regardless of why they want to consume Cannabis because its every adults inherent right to choose whether to ingest Cannabis or not.We all have a right to choose what we put in our bodies. No government and no billionaire has the right to tells us what we can and can’t put into our bodies.

I explore this topic further in my blog post on LegalizeCannabisInGeorgia.com

https://legalizecannabisingeorgia.com/2016/09/15/cbd-oil-is-not-enough/

My local Kroger is also carrying more and more local produce as well. Where I live doesn’t have an established Farmer’s Market. That would my preferred option of getting my produce but until that time I’ll buy organic products and veggies from Kroger. If you believe something strongly and a company is going against it you have a right to vote with your dollars to support those who support what’s important to you. Kroger has made a commitment to make organic products and organic food more available at a lower price. Publix has missed the boat on this and on top of that one of the owners is actively attempting to keep Cannabis illegal in Florida. I don’t want to support that.

All of these reasons are why I shop at my local Kroger. We all vote with our dollars every time we spend them. A lot of people have voted with their dollars in support of Kroger to continue increasing their organic selection because they now sell over 12 Billion dollars worth of natural and organic products. The more I buy those products the more of them that will be produced and if enough people do that the prices will continue to come down. Eating organic, drinking alkaline water and supporting companies that are more inline with my personal philosophy are all ways I can live a little bit healthier today and ensure a better tomorrow.

Brad Miller

 

Medical Freedom

When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.”
― Ron Paul

Human health is the human experience. It is both a cause and an effect. When we feel better we do more, and when we are able to accomplish more we feel better. Illness is one the ways that affects our health but also the many restrictions, laws and the very structure of our medical cartel that runs health care in this country inflicts additional pain and suffering that is totally unnecessary.

Medical Freedom is simply human freedom expressed in the production and consumption of products and services that improve human health. Laws, government regulations, employer insurance schemes, medical licensing, the FDA and all the various other means of restricting consensual exchange between individuals for the purposing of “feeling better” and “living longer” has created a ridiculously expensive and overwhelming complex system that punishes the very people its been sold to help, sick people.

I have been in and out of hospitals for the past 28 years. I have personal experience with chronic pain, surgery and the ever encroaching hand of government in my health care decisions. I reject the need of politicians and so called experts that benefit by commoditizing my suffering. That has to stop. Whenever anyone talks of “healthcare” you should be suspicious. What is lacking in all of these debates is the term getting healthier or feeling better. We don’t talk about “hunger care” when discussing farmers growing food.

Medical laws were created in this country and were sold as a way to “protect” people like me. When in reality all it has done is to make my life more difficult when merely living is extremely difficult. One example is the management of chronic pain. Reporters and politicians, police officers, district attorneys and others involved in the addiction, prison or pharma industry are in the news all the time talking about the scourge of opioid use. I have taken literally thousands of pain pills in my life and I continue to take them because I hurt a lot. I am eternally grateful for opioid pain pills. If they didn’t exist I would have killed myself when I was 12 or I would have died due to shock to all the pain caused by the bowel obstructions and most recently the horrific pain of pancreatitis.

Pain pills or pain medicine are derived from the poppy plant. It is simply a plant that miraculously creates a substance that provides pain relief. It is truly remarkable. I should be able to grow poppies in my garden and make poppy tea which humans have been doing for thousands of years. But instead I need a permission slip from a government licensed health consultant (doctor) and go to a pharmacy that has the pills on the shelf locked up behind a counter. Not only do I have to get the permission slip I now have to deal with state law on top of federal law in concert with restrictions by the insurance company. And on top of all this my personal information is now in a government database. I never consented to have my information accessed by the government for my “protection”. This is a clear violation of the 4th amendment.

What madness is this? It all boils down to the fundamentals of human freedom. The question every person, especially those who are chronically sick need to ask themselves: do you own your own body and your mind? Our system, the government, the big pharma companies, the DEA, the FDA, the police, and the licensing boards all believe you do not. It is set up to usurp your self-ownership and farm it out to your doctor, your pharmacy, drug companies and the alphabet soup of government divisions.

I believe that I own my body and my mind and that I have an inherit right to ingest whatever substances I choose to in order to feel better and live longer. I will not be right all the time. Life is inherently dangerous and I will always have limited knowledge when making choices. This also applies to the so called experts as well. Science is open ended. The current medical system is set up to convince you that they have all the answers and they are omnipotent when it comes to which drugs which are good and which are “bad”.

The entire prescription / pharmaceutical / FDA / DEA /Medical college system  is a cartel set up to allow the sale of dangerous drugs which would never be allowed if the FDA didn’t rubber-stamp them. If we didn’t have an FDA then companies would be totally at the mercy of internet reviews, independent analysis of their drugs and would be liable for killing people just like anyone else who sells a dangerous product.

Right now their liability is limited. They get the FDA rubber stamp and this allows them to rake in huge profits until the dangerous side effects begin killing and injuring people. By the time the lawsuits roll in they have already made a hundred times what it will cost them  to settle the lawsuits. And drugs like Cannabis, MDMA, psilocybin, and DMT are illegal even though they have been show to be extremely safe and more beneficial then what they are peddling.

Medical Freedom isn’t something we talk about because the debate is always about access to “healthcare”. When is the last time you heard a politician talk about individuals becoming healthier? They don’t. They simply want more and more people in the healthcare system. The same government that designs the road system, the tax system, the public education system and the wars across the world are the same people designing and implementing our “healthcare system”.

Why is it that the more government fails the more people want from it? The food pyramid debacle is the perfect example of what the true priorities are for the government and its corporate partners. Many experts now blame the food pyramid and the low fat scam as part of the massive rise in diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Food is a massive part of living a healthy life and the government purposely funded studies and supported research that showed sugar was good and that we should all be eating tons of wheat, corn and soy. And you know who receives massive subsidies from the government? You would be right if you said soy, corn, wheat and sugar producers.

Medical Freedom is the concept that you have the right to make choices devoid of corrupt government and corporate entities who want to treat sick people like a commodity. Medical Freedom simply means exercising your sovereignty over your body and your mind. Prescription Drugs should all be legalized as well as so called illegal drugs. Pharmaceutical companies will have to survive the legal challenges and the public review process along with the private entities that will emerge to test the validity of their claims.

I believe that once the FDA is stripped of their power of appointing which pharmaceutical company will reap billions of dollars in profits, the focus will turn from treating “diseases” and the chronically ill as a commodity to treating the chronically ill as human beings and treating the whole individual.

It is time to reclaim our right to go into a store and buy what we choose without the government, academics, people in white coats or who have a badge on their chest deem necessary. In a world in which Medical Freedom is respected we would still seek out health consultants and follow treatment recommendations. But the parent/child paradigm between the government and the ill would end. The consumer would be the one in control and have the ultimate say. And if you didn’t want to have a health consultant you would be free to follow a treatment program you see fit.

We’ve been lied to about Cannabis as a medicine by the government. The NIH actually holds two patents on cannabinoids that they list as effective for treating over ten different diseases and symptoms. The idea that the DEA who is financially incentivized to keep Cannabis a schedule 1 drug is criminal. The time to reassert our right to Medical Freedom as a natural expression of our innate rights due to our self-ownership as a human individual.

I’m struggling now with idiopathic pancreatitis. I’ve had this pain for decades but it went undiagnosed until the last few years. They are not sure why I have it or what we can do to prevent it from destroying my pancreas. I’m exploring having stem cell therapy to reverse the disease process. I should have the right to try what a majority of doctors might seem as dangerous or unproductive if I deem it to be a worthwhile risk.

Every decision we make is personal. When we are sick we don’t need the force of government involved to limit what are choices are in finding what we believe will be the most effective treatment for us to feel better and live longer. It doesn’t matter whether its vaporizing Cannabis, ignoring the food pyramid or trying experimental treatments that are now are considered dangerous or foolish but in the future could very well become the standard for care.

When you are sick you do not need artificial laws limiting your choices and limiting your access to natural, safe and effective plants and chemicals that have a chance to help individuals feeling better and living a longer life. Pain, inflammation and disease are terrible and life altering. I want every politician to know, every drug maker, and every one who seeks to commoditize my suffering that I am a human being who owns himself and I demand my Medical Freedom! I call all of those who are suffering with chronic illness to do the same.

Brad Miller