Take for example the extreme emotions of anger, hate & depression – emotions that if not discharged and resolved, lead to stress and tension in various parts of the body. Prolonged stress can lead to inflammation and irritation of viscera, and is a direct cause of biochemical imbalance. Actual pain that has no apparent cause, is generally connected to emotional negativity.

The attraction of drug use is that it takes away our pain. People seek drugs for pleasure as an antidote to underlying issues of pain. Often we think of pain as being a simple response by the body to some kind of physical illness or disorder. We rarely think of pain and disorder in the body as being a form of emotional expression.

Anger, hate and depression can drive the experience of pain, and related disorder in the body. We can outwardly express our negative feelings in outbusts of crying, shouting,or hitting. When we feel constrained from “acting out”, our negative energy is directed inward, and we effectively “turn against the self” – often treating the “body” as being separate from our “mind”.

Powerless to remove or relieve the sources of tension, we beat up instead on our body. The extent to which we choose to “damage” ourselves is in direct relationship to the intensity of pressure. Tension and stress causes disorder in the body when we are constrained from relieving it, in any other way.

In our muscles and joints we can carry a lot of tension, this can lead to unhealthy postural variations, a lack of adequate breathing, cardio-vascular and digestive disorders. Diseases such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and Crohn’s can be a psychosomatic symptom.

Release from the psychic bondage, brings release from the “dis-ease”.

There are many triggers for anxiety, anger and hate in the modern world, both in our personal relationships, and at a global level. There are very few opportunities for us to fully vent and express, in a meanful way, the full extent of our anxiety, anger and hate.

In an attempt to feel better, we might compromise, decide to “live with” our anxiety, anger and hate, because we do not have an ability to negotiate for anything better. This is never a good idea.

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Some people have tried to establish a direct relationship as between the experience of certain types of pain in the body – and emotional conflict. One of the most comprehensive books, and highly regarded in the field of alternative healing is the Inna Segal book – The Secret Language of your Body.

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We are all familar with the tension created by sudden anxiety, the lethargy of depression, the specific parts of the body affected when we feel anger or hate.

Many of us have submerged our “real” feelings in order to maintain a facade of contented, every day living, sometimes to appease an aggressor from whom we cannot, perhaps do not, want to escape. However, long term and unresolved emotional conflicts and issues will find a way to emerge.

Mental conflict might emerge as specific pain and tension in various parts of the body (somatic “disorders”), or as a wide range of behavioral patterns that have the specific purpose of discharging tension from the body, (psychological “disorders“).

Some people find tension release by acting out at a community level, by engaging in anti social behavior, such as expressing their frustration and anger by writing up graffiti.( social “dysfunction“).

Ultimately, extreme conflicts in the mind can cause extreme disorders of body function.

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A holistic and comprehensive approach is needed to get to the root of and provide solutions to emotional conflict, pain and related substance abuse. We might need professional, comprehensive help to deal with the huge emotional overload caused by conflicted beliefs.

Often it is those closest to us, with whom we might have the most toxic bonds, negativity feeding negatively.

Physical illness and painful symptoms can also arise from chemical toxicity - such as exposure to pollutants, plastics, and certain types of food.

PMS and menopause symptoms are an example of painful conditions that should not be medicated but need comprehensive, effective nurturing, and supportive detoxification.

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Doctors using narcotics, for physical pain “management”, have ignored the addictive potential ., and have tended to blame “addiction” on the patient, offering no real help.

The risk with drug use is that it tends to promote self-focused isolation, increasingly locking us into our “issues”and it does not contribute, in any way, to a healthy resolution of our problems.

To get to the root of and eradicate our negativity, our pain and our drug dependence, we need a fully comprehensive treatment program that has the power to enable a complete separation between “us”, and our drug use, so that we can begin to deal with our emotions and conflicts.

Choosing a fully comprehensive program that enables complete detoxification from drugs, that enables us to experience and feel the causes of our pain, in a supported and safe environment, enables us to work with the issues, and to become healthy again.

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Comprehensive alcohol and drug abuse programs enable us to fully separate from the habitual and compulsive behaviors that we use to mask and “live with” our feelings of negativity.

There is a world outside the self imposed box of negativity, pain and drug use – that invites you to come out – and participate in real self empowerment, contentment and happiness.

Comprehensive drug programs enable people to rebuild genuine self esteem, and take away away our attachment to all negativity in in our life.

Graduates of comprehensive drug programs have a positive, and constructive approach to living a new drug free and happy life – regaining the will to live.

When doctors were mandated to consider “pain management” as an ancilliary treatment, they have been happy enough to consult a pain management directory of assorted drugs, and to make a selection.

By using authorized, prescription drugs, doctors, in one move, have been able to get rid of the pain in their patient, and the problem that they have to deal with – “pain management” in society.

Addiction, deaths and dependency, inadequate coverage of pain has been the inevitable consequence of this inappropriate, but politically sanctioned “stab in the dark” at the broad and complex field of pain treatment, healing and recovery.

Doctors are not to blame. This responsibility for “pain management” was somewhat thrust upon them, making pain management their professional duty and obligation, a task for which most doctors, by their training were singularly ill equipped.

Not many doctors knew much about pain, not many knew much about the available drugs.

No doctors in terms of their medical school training had any expertise whatsoever in preventative and alternative pain treatments, relief and healing, as being preferable to pain “management”.

Like ducks to the water, like lambs to the slaughter – people came in with their pain, and got given a painkilling drug by their doctor – and everyone was happy.

As soon as addiction, deaths and dependency, and lack of effective pain relief became “live” issues in the management of pain, everyone involved in the “drug regime” has gone ducking for cover. In truth, narcotics for general use should never have been approved.

Funding for pain management should have been redirected towards the development of drug free natural options – that enable the causes of pain to be explored, that enable pain recovery by the enhancement of good health and healing.

Instead we fester and suffer on under a narcotic drug regime, that indoctrinates people, both patients and doctors, into believing that if you have pain, you need an opiate drug.

You can overdose on and become addicted to OxyContin when using it as prescribed, it will depend on the integrity, experience and drug awareness of your prescribing doctor. If this occurs, you will bear the consequences. It is highly unlkely that a prescribing doctor will be reprimanded at all. You are expected to put up with side effects, on the basis, that all drugs come with those.

You will not be fully informed about, or encouraged to use non-narcotic, natural alternatives to drugs, as a primary means of treatment and possible recovery from your pain, when you see a doctor who operates under government funded health care and pain “management” options.

You will simply be re-assured about the efficacy of drugs, and prescribed some new variation to your pain medication, if it seems to be causing complications. You don’t have many options in the context of an enforced drug regime.

There are many people today, on drugs, in pain, who are deeply dissatisified with their outcome – the drugs have failed to live up to their promise, of painfree, happy living, the patient has failed to achieve recovery from his pain. Life appears to be more of an endurance trial, than happy, contented living.

This scenario can apply to people who take prescription drugs for their physical pain, it can also apply to those who take antidepressants and similar medications to overcome emotional.pain.

You would think that people in such circumstances would welcome, listen to and evaluate any suggestion, by anyone that might alleviate their condition. But the answer is often that many people in pain, dependent upon, yet unhappy with their drug taking, impulsively lash out at, and reject any suggestion that they need to reconsider and implement a more healthy lifestyle.

The truth is that such people are often depressed. They have had enough troubles in their life, and have had enough of their troubles.

The pain they now endure, really is the last straw – all that they want, is for all of the pain that they have, to be completely taken away. Drugs appear to be and are promoted as being their best option.

Using drugs brings a sense of empowerment, over painful life experiences, to people who are depressed. Drug use does bring relief of a sort, but it is an illusion of control.

Depression is a cause of pain, and pain a cause of depression. People locked into this cycle, by the dead hand of drug dependence, often don’t want to get out. They know that they are on the road to nowhere, but feel it is too hard to get out.

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Giving up drugs will expose them to the full force of a pain that they simply do not want to suffer from, or to deal with any more.

People is such a situation have the option, to remain with the status quo – their depression, their drugs, and their pain.

Or they can choose a fully comprehensive addiction recovery program that enables complete detoxification from drugs, that enables us to experience and feel the causes of our pain, in a supported and safe environment, that enables us to work with the issues, and to become healthy again.

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There is a world outside the self imposed box of negativity, pain and drug use - that invites you to come out – and participate in real self empowerment, contentment and happiness.

Graduates of comprehensive drug programs have a positive, and constructive approach to living a new drug free and happy life.

It is alleged that millions of people live with chronic pain, in agony, due to the fact that many doctors today are too afraid to prescribe painkillers to their patients, at levels to quell their pain.

They fear harassment, or possible charges and imprisonment at the hands of the DEA.

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Spokesman for the afflicted is Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competetive Enterprises Institute that promotes free trade, and limited government interference. Sam Kazman sees

modern science and the drugs that it promotes as being “under siege” from people who seek to put personal experience and testimonials “above” the results of scientific studies.

Medical science sees itself as being fettered by a public that is scientifically illiterate, and a media that seeks sensation – apparently the position is not helped by the fact that even some scientists fail to truly understand the scientific method.

Medical science, despite considerable empirical, and more recently, experimental evidence to the contrary promotes opioid pain killers such as OxyContin as being a legitimate pain medication that is completely safe when used as prescribed.

Back in 1996, OxyContin swept onto the market, heralded as an opioid that was safe to use as a prescription, self adminstered long term drug for the treatment of moderate and severe chronic pain. The risks of tolerance and possible addiction were fully understood at the time by experts in the field. It was hoped that the OxyContin slow release function would overcome these issues.

OxyContin ER was in fact a bi-phasic release that gave a person an initial surge of strong pain relief, but which as formulated by the manufacturer, failed to provide sustained pain relief for the stipulated 12 hour period.

Whilst it true that genuine pain sufferers are not going to their doctors like illicit users do, to get an Oxy “fix” – they are demanding higher doses of the drug, and a continued supply because:

a) continued use of opioids tends over time to exacerbate symptoms of pain – these patients often have more pain than they started with, at the original site of “injury” and in other places,

b) opioids don’t assist or promote healing of degenerative conditions, therefore a person’s actual symptoms might be worse as a result of neglect of more positive treatment options, due to the apparent “respite” from pain offered by opioid medications,

c) tolerance of the narcotic means that a person needs to use more of the drug to get similar pain relief, the drug becomes less effective,

d) depletion of biochemicals as direct result of the cycle of drug administration and withdrawal means that the body and mind are less able to self regulate for mood, and physical side effects – higher doses of the drug appears to users to compensate for increasing disequilibrium, needing more of the drug, just to help them feel “normal”.

In virtually all users OxyContin will produce a physically painless state and an emotional “high”, the intensity of relief will depend on the depth of prior suffering.

Opioid withdrawal brings a person down – pain returns and the euphoria subsides.

It would take some time for the body and mind to re-establish natural equilibrium after an opioid dose, and the reality is that we would prefer not to go back to our pain and our sorrows after our opioid “holiday”.

We don’t care if it is only an illusion of health and happiness – we want the feeling that we get when the opioids are our system, and so we use the opioid again, and become dependent.

In truth there is little severe, ongoing pain in the healthy human body. The intensity of pain after injury is modified by the body, as part of the healing process, once the pain signals have done their job of alerting the body to an area of damage that is in need of healing. Our thoughts can both inhibit and enhance the experience of pain.

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It is when drugs are used to disrupt the healthy signaling of pain, that the body becomes confused as to what exactly is happening. Tissue damage demands repair, but the innervation that should be telling the CNS and brain exactly what is wrong, when drugged, appears to be dead. The body also regards the toxic drug as a pathogen that needs to be neutralized.

Therefore people who have been using narcotics for pain relief for years should not be surprised to find that their original condition has not improved. They will find that over time the drugs do not cover their pain, and the toxicity of the drugs they are using can cause all manner of apparently unrelated effects, such as constipation, weak bones, chronic fatigue, depression, and feelings of general malaise.

There is only one way out from the politics of  Oxy despair – other than overdose, and that is to cease to claim victim status in the issue, and stop clamoring for “more” of the drugs.

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People with pain, on opioids need to put a stop to their drug use, and start using natural pain relief options to restore their body to health.

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Comprehensive addiction recovery centers can help you achieve natural pain relief and complete opioid addiction recovery.

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Florida has recently introduced strict laws around the prescription and sale of OxyContin pills. In 2010, the DEA reported that 90 of the top 100 doctors who were known to be over prescribers of Oxy – lived and worked in Florida.

Now there are only 13.

The result has been relative peace and tranquility for law enforcement officers in Florida. It is now much easier for them to spot incidences of oxycodone overprescription and so keep a lid on the Oxy problem in Florida.

There has been a reduction of 97% in sales of oxycodone to doctors in Florida since 2010. There has been a similar decline – a reduction of 29% of oxycodone purchases from Florida pharmacies.

There have been two recent prosecutions of over prescribing doctors – one sentenced to 25 years in prison and another charged with alleged opioid prescription offences arising out of having prescribed for patients more than 250,000 oxycodone pills over a period of eight months.

As from September of last year, pharmacies in Florida are required to fully track the issuing of opioid pain killers on prescription, which means that people can no longer get an oversupply of painkillers by going to different pharmacies.

Although it would appear that the problem of Florida pill mills, and the human misery that they incite has largely been resolved, what is not resolved by this tightening up of the relevant legislation is the fundamental issue of continued drug addiction.

Florida law officers report, and perhaps it is no surprise – increasing numbers of over prescribing pill mill doctors have now set up shop in neighboring States, such as Tennessee and Georgia.

It is also said that some Oxy addicts in Florida, are travelling as far as Canada to get supplies of Oxy.

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The downside of this Florida success is that we are now getting reports from States such as Georgia that with the new legislation in Florida – recognized pill mills in Georgia rose from 40 to nearly 90 by the end of last year.

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Georgia will not be able to get an efficient new drug database up and running until around 2013, although the State has already put new legislation in place.

The State of Tennessee has also passed pill mill legislation early in the New Year, hopeful that it will give them the edge over the new influx of oversupplying pill mill doctors.

It might be thought that the answer is as easy as spreading the Florida model for prescription drug reporting so that the whole of America is “tight” with new legislation – effectively preventing the average person from abusing the system.

However, if the solution to drug addiction was to be found in making laws about it, no doubt we would have overcome the problem, won the war on drugs, many years ago.

The reality is that if, prescription oxycodone in illicit doses ever becomes too hard to get hold of, opioid addicts will respond by seeking alternatives, with heroin a drug of choice because of it’s relatively low price, and easy availability.

Meanwhile, people such as the Governor of Kentucky speak out in public about the scourge of oxycodone drug products, at meetings such as the recently held Kentucky Prescription Drug Abuse Summit. In Kentucky, painkiller prescription drug deaths, of around 1,000 per year, outnumber fatalities due to motor vehicle accidents.

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In the article, recovering war veteran, Dustin Gross, aged 26, says that with the help of Veteran’s Affairs, he recovered from the degradation that he suffered as a prescription drug addict, now saying that what addicts in Kentucky need most is hope. Gross is now studying bio-engineering.

It would appear that while hope is a factor in addiction recovery – help and opportunity to make something good ‘happen” play an equal part, enabling a person to become drug free –  constructive,  contented and happy.

The other side of the coin is that nearly 10% of Kentucky Grade 12 kids have illicitly used a prescription narcotic in the past month, just a few of the 7 million Americans today who regularly use prescription medication as a recreational drug.

With Kentucky setting aside a sum of $7.8 million to be spent over two years on a Medicaid program for adults and children suffering from addiction, and further money being injected into KASPER, the Kentucky drug monitoring data base, it could be time to rethink the entire medical model of drug addiction as being a cause of pain and lost opportunity in life.

Perhaps the reason why some people in a population turn to drug use and stay with it, is that they already have pain, and disillusionment, a lack of opportunity in their life. They use drugs simply because they see in drug use their only hope of feeling “better”.

Drug addiction is at the end of the day a psycho-social disorder, from which people can achieve recovery, given appropriate support.

Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction programs understand the feelings of people who have turned to drugs – have a capacity to re-enable motivation and hope of a better life.

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Graduates of comprehensive addiction recovery program come out drug free, with no cravings. People concerned about the pain and suffering inflicted by prescription drug abuse may need to re-evaluate their attitude and approach to drug abuse and addiction.

If drug addiction seen, not as a cause of problems in life, but as a self help remedy to resolve them, then it becomes clearer – that an effective public response to widespread drug abuse is to support and enhance drug resilience in the individual.

Comprehensive recovery based addiction programs have a track record of success.

People affected by prescription drug addiction regain hope as they progress with the courses, and return to the community – drug free, productive and happy

Natural pain relief treatments share a common purpose in that they are all interventions designed to invigorate and strengthen natural body functions, as a means to enabling the body to overcome painful disorders of both body and mind.

Although most natural methods for healing have been known about for centuries, in many ways, since the end of the two world wars, there has been a “Dark Age” for natural healing - cast into the shade by the aggressive promotion of proprietary drug medications, and as a spin off from that – a lucrative world wide drug trade, for “recreational use”.

Natural healing is now making a comeback, and is widely sought after, due to the limitations, and side effects of prescription drugs. Increasingly, practitioners of natural healing and pain relief are obtaining certification so that people can make an informed choice as between allopathic and holistic healing methods.

Doctors of Chiropractic treat pain caused by musculo-skeletal disorders both natural, and as a result of trauma. Chiropractors treat the whole person, dealing with orthopaedic and neurological irregularities, often providing instant pain relief, increased strength and flexibility to joints, that have otherwise been treated as a cause of chronic pain and medicated.

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Improvements to posture as a result of chiropractic intervention often bring improvements to digestion, breathing, a reduction of pain related tension, and tension related pain – creating an enhanced sense of well being.

Chiropractic healing is safe for both adults and children.

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The relatively new science of Trigenics combines three treatment techniques to deal with acute and chronic spinal pain. With no drugs or surgery, and using state of the art x-rays, thermography, orthopaedic and neurological testing, practitioners obtain a clinical picture of the injury site and using a manipulative technique that involves soft tissue therapy with resisted exercise, to relieve pain, restores functionality and brings healing.

Trigenics naturally reprograms the brain’s response to pain, so that what ever the cause of the injury, pain can be diminished.

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Clinical pilates is a form of structured pilates exercise, designed to bring about release of tension and pain relief with movement and exercise.

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Yoga is an ancient spiritual, meditative practice, involving body postures. Yoga has for many years become secularized, and focused upon overcoming pain and related tension in the body and mind, by using meditative mental control and extreme relaxation techniques.

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Massage of a remedial kind will often incorporate muscle, tendon and ligament massage so as to relieve acute symtoms of pain.

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Similar to remedial massage is remedial myofascial release techniques that involve manipulation of the connective tissues.

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Natural pain relief in childbirth means no risk to the child of toxic side effects, natural pain relief for children means no drug toxicity to impair growth and mental development, and the risk of death. Natural remedies are essentially “gentle” with the body.

One of the most comprehensive approaches to recovery of health and pain relief is the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. Because acupuncture taps into sources of mental and physical energy – for most people acupuncture brings great relief.

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Effective natural treatments for pain often have some “negative” side effects that are really the beginning of healing. The effects are temporary, and will subside as the body and mind come more into balance. Understanding that pain often needs to be expressed and its causes treated before good health can be restored is a fundamental principle of natural healing.

Using drugs to maintain an appearance of health often contributes to the maintenance of “sick” conditions in the body, disturbances of the mind.

Abuse of drugs is one of the many causes of chronic pain, stress and deterioration of the body and mind. The situation is not improved by using drug maintenance programs.

Leaving people to ultimately find their own way out of drug addiction, after a short detox, means that people continue to have drug cravings, and addictive behaviors.

The approach taken by comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery programs begins with a commitment to a science based, social model for addiction recovery that uses holistic principles to achieve good health and healing.

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Comprehensive programs draw on many natural, drug free principles and practices – all designed to work with synergy towards completely craving free drug addiction recovery.

Narconon promotes complete and thorough detoxification as a base for healing, removing toxins latent in the body for years, that contribute to cravings. The pain of drug withdrawal is overcome by completely natural methods – supplements and nutitious food help to restore the body, “touch therapy” helps relieve pain, both physical and emotional.

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While body detox is being completed, students of the program take part in coursework that provides education and understanding, and practical applications for life improvement, and communication enhancement, helping people to have better human relationships and to feel better about themselves.

Graduates of the Narconon program for complete addiction recovery are pain free in body and mind, with no physical craving for drugs, and no painfully destructive, addictive patterns of behavior.

We are very much conditioned to think of pain relief in terms of using an OTC drug or prescription medication. We think of natural pain relief as being a herbal remedy, to be found in packaged doses at a health store, intended to be used more or less as a medication.

Doctors tend to think in terms of surgical intervention and drug use for the treatment of pain, and both can inhibit our natural healing capacity.

Traditional healthcare has pathologized pain, seeing it as being something that we do not want, don’t want to work through, or understand. Pain is regarded as a medical condition to be treated with drugs, medicated away.

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Many feel that an absence of pain means health, or at least a capacity to soldier on.

True healing brings an absence of pain – because we have taken the time to understand the meaning of our pain – and worked to resolve its causes. In our haste to get pain relief we miss an opportunity to understand that pain is only a messenger – the delivery of a message that something, somewhere is not “well”, and is in need of healing.

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Whether our pain is physical or caused by emotional tension, there will be natural methods that we can use to help mind and body to heal.

Physical pain and emotional distress are intertwined.

Emotional distress causes physical “symptoms”, physical symptoms such as pain cause psychological distress. Pain can be intensified by our emotional response to it.

Some insight into this intricate situation is provided by an unexpected side effect of antidepressant drugs.

Whereas painkilling drugs have long been known to have antidepressant effects, doctors are now finding that some types of antidepressant drugs provide effective pain relief.

The experience of “pain” is highly subjective – and is affected by many factors.

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The main arguments in favor of using drugs for pain relief are based on extreme cases. When pain is acute and unbearable – drugs are put up as being the only humane option to provide respite, and dignity. There are many pain drugs available to ease the daily stress of living.

The main reason why we choose to use drugs of any kind, for pain relief, in preference to resolving, correcting what is causing the pain is that we feel overwhelmed and powerless to do otherwise than use drugs to overcome and deal with our pain.

At a psychological level, we don’t have the life skills, the hope and resilience to best resolve the causes of our pain - all we want is pain relief so that we can get on with living.

What we fail to understand in our dialogue with pain, is that it is our chosen way of living that defines our experience of pain.

Exploring the relationship between lifestyle, stress, and pain is a road less travelled. Some will refuse to go there. Pain is something beyond our control – and we need drugs to cure it.

An article on Spine Health is thoughtfully put together by Stephanie, with a list of pain relievers that are both natural and easy – that release your inner endorphins, for natural pain reduction.

Good food and good company – laughter is said to be the best medicine. Heat packs, cold packs have their benefits and bring symptomatic relief from muscular sprains, period pains, and headaches.

You can get movement and activity back into your life – with exercise, massage and joint mobilization techniques. Although it might be painful at first, the creaks and groans of exercise or subtle feelings of tension release brought on by a chiropractor are often the first symptom of regeneration and healing.

Getting outdoors brings the benefits of oxygenating the body, sunlight helps to bring healing, and can relieve depression. Getting out and about gives us an opportunity for new relationships and new ideas.

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Sometimes rest, more sleep, deep relaxation is appropriate for pain – enabling natural healing to happen at a physical and emotional level.

Help for emotional pain can come through guided imagery, meditation, some people use hypnosis. We can also use techniques to realign our energy – pilates or acupuncture. – and last but not least – we need to make sure that we are getting enough quality sleep, exercise and nutrition.

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Genuine natural pain relief is provided in a holistic context. Holistic healthcare methods use complementary healing techniques so as to mobilise body resources, raise awareness, and energy levels -  use methods that enhance overall “wellness” in a person.

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Dealing with pain by natural methods means giving up drug use, and usng a comprehensive approach to the complete resolution of what is causing the pain.

There are many types of natural help that people can use for pain relief in order to bring an end to physical and mental suffering.

The more we are willing to look beyond our pain and see it in perspective, the more in control we will feel.

Understanding and resolving our pain, using the comprehensive Narconon program brings total freedom from drug use and from drug addiction.

Firstly, there is the widely held belief that synthetic narcotic opioids offer the only effective pain relief to both the terminally ill, and those in chronic pain. People need narcotic pain relief, and this should not be denied them.

Secondly, when opioid narcotics are used as prescribed there is no risk of physical or psychological dependence, addiction or overdose. Use your painkillers as prescribed, and everything will be fine.

Thirdly, as no one dies or suffers an adverse reaction when using narcotics as prescribed, any one who dies or suffers an adverse reaction must have, in some way, done the wrong thing, and so is the author of their own misfortune.

The DEA mounted a challenge to this stone wall position against responsibility or liability when it re-examined toxicology statistics for oxycodone, and specifically OxyContin as a cause of death. The results demonstrated, in absence of better data to work from, that OxyContin was associated with 15%, and was a most probable factor in 49% of 949 oxycodone related deaths.

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Although the DEA report specifically found that polydrug toxicologies, in many of the victims – does not minimize the significance of the role of OxyContin in these deaths, industry used the polydrug findings to support a position that the only abuse of OxyContin occured at the hand of the user.

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Since 2002,  official inquiries into deaths and adverse reactions from use of opioid drugs have tended to follow the line that they are inquiries designed to investigate illicit abuse of prescription drugs, deflecting attention from due inquiry into the possiblity of prescription drugs used as prescribed being a direct cause of many fatal and unintentional prescription narcotics overdoses.

In groundbreaking work, by both  Dr Dhalla and Dr Korff a new picture has begun to emerge.

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Dr Dhalla has been responsible for independent research that deals with clustering. He identifies a relationship between having a prescription issued by a doctor in the top bracket for numbers of prescriptions issued for opioid painkillers, and being someone who dies of opioid related causes.

Variations in prescribing, at the level of the individual doctor, appear to be related to opioid related mortality.

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The risk of overdose from prescription opioids increases with the dose prescribed according to a report cited by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Not only are higher doses more risky, but they would appear to contribute little, if anything at all, to increased pain relief.

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Dr Korff of the Group Health Research Institute, established since 1947 for research and development of better traditional healthcare, has conducted research that takes the focus off the war on illicit drugs, bringing attention directly to the increasing problem of narcotic drugs, issued on prescription.

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Blanket statements that have been made that suggest narcotics are safe to use when issued on prescription fail to take into account that prior to 2010, doctors generally had no care plans, no specific training in pain management or addiction issues, and were widely divergent in their individual approaches to appropriate prescribing for chronic pain in their patients.

Although the incidence of illicit use occurs with opioid drug prescription, indications are that the majority of prescription users of opioid pain drugs do not use drugs other than as prescribed, and that the incidence of prescription painkillers available on the street, is proportionate to levels of prescription by authorizing doctors.

Less than 4% of prescription narcotics abusers obtain their supply from a dealer or a stranger – it is family, friends and the local doctor who facilitate supply of prescription narcotics in around 96% of cases.

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Independent alcohol and drug addiction recovery specialist, Narconon International has been contributing to the availablity of information, in this field, for the purpose of increasing public awareness of the risks of using narcotics, whether on prescription or illicitly and welcomes the further initiatives that enable progress towards better solutions in pain management for all.

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Narconon holds to a  strictly no drugs policy in the area of addiction recovery, supported by current medical opinion that not all pain is bad, nor should it be thought of being always in need of automatic medication. Using methods that enable the body to fully mobilize endogenous biochemicals for pain management and recovery of good health is ethical and causes no harm – in fact generates in the body a vast potential energy for recovery from drug abuse and addiction, and co-morbid disorders of mind and body.

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The answer for those who are seeking to find the truth about drug use is that all drugs cause harm to the body, at different levels of toxicity.

To get clean from drugs, recover good health and become free of drug addiction – people need to rethink their entire approach to drug use in healthcare today, and in addiction recovery.

It is noted that many people with FMS also suffer from anxiety, depression, tension headaches, jaw clenching, irritable bowel syndrome, FMS leading to feelings of fatigue and intense local and generalized “pain”.

They also take OxyContin.

Serotonin and Substance P are the neurotransmitters implicated in the onset of FMS, regardless of what event might be seen as having “triggered” FMS in any particular individual.

Lack of deep sleep is also implicated, with low levels of Somatomedin C. There is depletion of of adrenal function. The use of opioid drugs to combat pain is contraindicated as long term opioid use contributes to slow metabolic rate leading to, among other things constipation, lethargy, decreased circulation, muscle tone and strength.

Sufferers specifically have elevated levels of Substance P in the spinal cord, decreased blood flow to the Thalamus, that helps regulate general perception.

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The cause of fibromyalgia is said to be unknown, although it is often a secondary “complaint”, brought on by some form of debilitating stress, illness or injury.

Given that neurological deficits or imbalances appear to be implicated in FMS, it might be that the ongoing use of toxic, psychoactive drugs as medications is a contributory cause.

By way of example – Substance P plays a role in that universal complaint that is known as alcohol related hiccups.

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It can be seen that the role of Substance P, in the body, is benign – it is a good thing to expel toxins from the body, and help the body to heal. Substance P is a primary force in the body as an instigator of healing, a comprehensive agent of recovery.

However, due to its association with the pain response, the inflammatory response, including the activation of mast cells, Substance P has been regarded by some as creating an impediment to proper healing.

Unfortunately, modern medicine is anxious to use it’s painkillers, antibiotics, – anti this and that’s – so as to effect some “treatment”. It even tries, in error, to medicate away the healing processes of the body.

Not surprisingly, the toxic drugs we use have a detrimental effect on Substance P and, for example the glial system.

Whereas medical science will refer to other substances as being toxic, it does not see it own drugs in that way.

The body naturally tried to work around, neutralize and eliminate drugs from the body as with any other toxin.

Pain, inflammation, immobility, swelling, reduced functionality, additional sleep, a “depressed” state of equilibrium – the body knows best what conditions must be for optimal repair and recovery, yet we try to medicate against them.

Has medical science yet perfected a band aid as effective as the blister. Why on earth do we pop it and put on our own inferior material?

The moment we medicate with a toxic drug it adversely affects the capacity of the body to optimize its own synergy to restore health and balance.

Substance P, apart from its many other beneficial functions, regulates endogenous painkilling substances, resulting in optimal and effective analgesia. Although known to promote pain in the body, Substance P also acts so as to regulate it.

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As a possible factor in the generation of FMS, the chronic use of opioids diminishes Substance P availablity. This, among other causes of depletion leads to a proliferaton of substance P receptors (neoplasticity) as an attempt by the body to maintain adequate supply. When supply is regained, the proliferation of Substance P receptors can create a state of supersensivity to pain in the central nervous system, a feature of FMS.

Further stress, from continued opioid use maintains rebound, intensified feelings of pain.

The psychoactive medications we use also disrupt serotonin levels and can exercerbate anxiety, increase depression and contribute to feelings of pain. Long term pain has a strong emotional component that can inhibit recovery.

The situation is worse if we start taking narcotics as a medication. Narcotics create their own problems with our emotional feelings, and deplete the physical state of our body.

What people need with FMS is to encourage the production of Substance P and other natural healing mechanisms, not to be left at the mercy of opioid drugs, “antidepressants” and their continued pain. By taking opioid drugs long term we might be causing our chronic pain to continue due to CNS sensitization effects.

As a single, relevant stress factor, it is probable that chronic use of opioid drugs leads to the development of chronic FMS, a situation in which the purported remedy is part of  the problem.

The whole issue of prescription OxyContin addiction, opioid dependency, overdose and death – and the place of medication today as a basis for public health care is not merely a matter of controlling diversion.

We need to keep drugs out of healthcare completely – and publicly fund and support non toxic, effective alternative options for good health, and opioid addiction recovery.

Instead of taking opioids such as OxyContin for years, people with FMS need to get clean of their whole drug regime. and give their body and mind a chance to recover their natural function and begin the work of healing.

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In the process of getting clean from their Oxy addiction, it is very likely that FMS sufferers will also find the key to their suffering, an opportunity to work through and work out deep seated causes of stress in their life, that lead to disrupted physical and mental functioning.

Sort out your issues, get help with your pain using drug free alternative remedies. You can become FMS and opioid addiction free – with no further need or desire for OxyContin, no more chronic , debilitating pain.

At present, drug companies are not allowed to supply pure hydrocodone tablets as a painkiller in the USA. Painkillers that rely on hydrocodone currently have to be made up in combination with a non- opioid painkiller, such as paracetamol (acetaminophen).

Hydrocodone is a synthetic opioid drug, similar to oxycodone that is the ingredient of OxyContin. Hydrocodone is made up from thebaine and codeine, two of the synthetic drugs that can be made up out of the opium poppy.

Vicodan, sometimes described as being the most widely abused painkilling drug today comes with acetaminophen. The problem is that if drug abusers take too much Vicodan, they can inadvertently overdose on acetaminophen. The maximum safe dose of acetaminophen is no more than 4,000mg per day. Too much on a regular basis causes rapid, and fatal liver damage.

The risks of inadvertent overdose when using combination painkilling drugs has been known for some time. For example, a person using Vicodan might think that they can take a few Tylenol painkillers as well as their Vicodan. Tylenol is only a brand name for acetaminophen – therefore you could easily be taking a fatal dose of acetaminophen by using Vicodan and Tylenol drug, at one and the same time.

It needs to be remembered that acetaminophen, although not an opiate, can also be addictive as a painkiller. Many people have started on opiate abuse that began by abusing Tylenol.

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As regards the current moves to get extended release hydrocodone painkillers onto the market, two comments have been made, in the context that there is currently a $10 billion per year market for prescription narcotics in the USA.

Peter Jackson, co-founder of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids, says:

“It is like the Wild West – the whole supply- side — is set up to perpetuate this massive unloading of opioid narcotics, on the American public.

April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse is concerned:

This could be the next OxyContin – we just don’t need this on the market. It seems that the proposed new hydrocodone tablets will be able to be crushed, and abused in the illicit drug market, in a similar manner to OxyContin ER tablets.

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The statistics available on prescription painkiller use and abuse indicate a considerable and increasing problem of adverse events arising out of prescription painkiller abuse.

Originally, other non-opioid drugs were mixed with hydrocodone to discourage abuse. The result has been widespread abuse and toxicity of the drugs that have been combined with hydrocodone.

Whereas the drug manufacturers are prepared to launch this new formulation of hydrocodone, government statistics show that abuse of Vicodan and other prescription painkillers is widespread, affects young children still of school age – and is a frequent cause of death.

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The justification that drug companies use to market these drugs is that no one with a legitimate need for strong pain relief should be denied a remedy – just because an unruly element of society diverts these prescription narcotics to illicit recreational use.

What has not yet been addressed by drug manufacturers to date, is the incidence of people becoming addicted when using their drugs as prescribed. There is said to be an intention to have doctors attend special training courses to administer opioid painkillers on prescription, to avoid people becoming addicted.

Probably the best that doctors who insist on using opioid painkillers can achieve, is to recognize opioid addiction when it first sets in, and stop prescribing that particular drug to their patient.

Once a person has a taste for opioid drugs, it can lead very rapidly to dependence and addiction.

Both governments and drug companies have had over 15 years to observe the tragic results in the community of widespread opioid drugs.

When there are alternative, and effective methods for pain relief available, other than opioid drugs – perhaps it is time that governments stopped exposing the general public to a real risk of addiction and death by its continued support of widespread, and indiscriminate prescription opioid drug use.

The links between chronic stress and pain need to be further explored, with a view to healing pain by use of natural stress relief methods. Drug use would appear long term, to interfere with healing, and be a contributing factor in the experience of long term chronic pain for which there appears to be no “cause”.

While governments fail to explore safe and natural avenues for the relief of chronic pain – they are only adding to the problem of widespread opioid addiction in the community.

If we have not learned from Oxy Contin, then we as a society are doomed to keep repeating the same mistake. Use opioid painkillers for pain relief – and we will have widespread opioid addiction in our communities.

An article by Richard Sinnott, June 2011 in Florida’s TCPalm online magazine makes it clear that drug regulators have the power, as required, to remove pharmaceutical drugs from the market, and uses the example of methaqualone (known as Quaalude, Sopor…) that was first made in India, in 1955.

Similar to barbiturates, Quaalude became a popular party drug and was diverted to recreational use (ludes), with a high potential for addiction and overdose during the 1960′s and 70′s.

From 1982, laws were put into place, and Quaalude sales were banned in the USA. The writer cites similar outcomes for the pharmaceutical drugs Vioxx and Bextra.

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Sinnott points out that OxyContin is a much stronger drug than Quaalude, with many people dying from unintentional overdose, even when using Oxy as prescribed. With Quaalude the main risk was accidental injury while under the influence – yet while the sedative hypnotic Quaalude was banned, OxyContin remains on the market.

Vioxx was a Cox-2 inhibitor, widely prescribed for arthritis and back pain. Post market concerns about safety risks increased leading to a voluntary recall by the manufacturer in 2004.

see article

Bextra, a brand name for valdecoxib, was prescribed for relief of pain, arthritis, swelling and fever as from 2001, and removed from the market in 2005. Manufacturer Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion for being associated with deception and fraud in the marketing of the drug, with it’s subsidiary admitting to criminal conduct in the marketing of Bextra and being fined a whopping $1,195 billion.

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OxyContin, introduced in 1996, is not free of a similarly “tainted” past – with 3 of its promoters having been banned from dealing with government agencies for a period of 12 years, and drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma paying massive fines of around $630 million, in 2007, for mis-branding in relation to the initial promotion of OxyContin concerning its addictive potential.

In 2001, Purdue voluntarily suspended sales of a 160mg Oxy tablet – the maximum dose in opiate naive users being around 40mg.

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While none of the businessmen involved in the promotion of drug products that are recalled appear to face censure other than fines – users of the problematic drugs often pay the ultimate price, no post market action for recall being taken until there is an evidence base for drug related harm.

It is not as if we need prescription drug relief. There are many natural and effective options by which pain can be reduced, that are non-invasive, have no adverse side effects, and which are not addictive.

Since the emergence of synthesized drugs, intended for medical use, and their subsequent diversion, the issue has been limited to what are the “safest”drugs to use, and how best to deal with diversion.

There has been little or no government support for alternatives in pain management and cure – no allocated funding to enable appropriate testing and inquiry in the natural pain relief field.

Individuals who wish to promote alternative pain solutions are met with the argument that no trials have been conducted, they have no evidence base.

Part of the problem is that R&D funding would not be returned by a discovery that herbals and minerals in their unprocessed, natural form, that in many cases can be grown in a home cottage garden, provide the most effective cures for most of our present day maladies.

Natural health practitioners who offer bodywork, such as chiropractors and masseurs receive little if any official recognition of their ability to work with and manage pain – and no independent public funding. We are an increasingly drugged, and drug dependent society – whether we like it or not.

With each New Year it is a time to look forward to the future, reflect upon the past. For both individuals and nations who have a “drug problem” – New Year is a time to make changes.

People suffering from any kind of drug dependence or addiction, who want a new start in life, need first to break with the past – make a resolution to become independent of drugs.

The situation is not helped when we see authorities take a stand – and ban a drug such as Avastin, as the FDA has done, and have those invested with the power of continued production and distribution ( ie big pharma and the medical profession) simply flouting the FDA directive. You will still be able to get Avastin for breast cancer, despite FDA disapproval – simply because the healthcare profession wants to continue to use the drug, and health insurers are willing to underwrite the cost.

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It is ultimately an individual choice – whether to make drug use part of your life - to bear the cost both in financial terms and lost opportunity to be leading a more healthy, happy life.

Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery specialists can help you to see the wood for the trees, find your way through the jungle.

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Make it your New Year resolution to put Oxy and all drug use behind you.

Use a comprehensive, drug free program and start on the journey to a drug free, contented life in the year 2012.