"I’ve seen the opioid epidemic as a cop. Living it as a patient has been even worse."

"My insurance company paid for eight physical therapy sessions and refused more. They’ll pay for buckets of Vicodin. But non-narcotic relief? I’m on my own.

Then they declined the Buprenorphine my doctor prescribed, which had been helping for pain and not making me drowsy or euphoric. Instead, they’d pay for Fentanyl, the much stronger synthetic opioid making cops sick just by being in the same room with it. I wouldn’t risk taking it. It took two months, three dispute letters and more than $700 out-of-pocket before they’d finally recognize my doctor might actually know what to prescribe me.

Now, like so many other Americans, I find myself in a medical twilight zone where distrust outweighs care, where doctors fear censure and pass me off to another office."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/11/ive-seen-the-opioid-epidemic-as-a-cop-living-it-as-a-patient-has-been-even-worse/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na&utm_term=.8036deaa06a5

Support basic neuroscience research. Ackkkk we need new pain drugs that are non-addictive and people are working on studying pain receptors and the peripheral nerves that carry pain signals to the brain and what happens in the brain in the short term and what happens when it turns chronic. 

Neuroscientists are finding new solutions, really exciting and clever things, but we need to know more and scientists need some assurance of a steady long-term funding environment.