AMERICAN PAIN INSTITUTE,

ARKANSAS CHAPTER

 

APIAC

 

 

THE ABILITY OF EACH STATE

 

 

Each state has the ability to create and regulate an Intractable Pain Treatment Act.  Many states have realized that a pain-free quality life should not simply be afforded to those that have been given a “terminal” title to their medical diagnosis.  Yet, more states still demonstrate, through legislation, that the only patients that are entitled to live as pain-free as possible, are those that are dying.  These state medical boards continue to make decisions on patients, their personal family care physicians and the decided treatment plans, simply by reading a chart or hearing a reported rumor.

 

The legislators in the state of Arkansas need to realize that each of these charts only exists because of the “human being” attached to it.  We need to have a requirement that before an outside or uninvolved party is allowed to make a decision as to the handling of an individual chart or case, those parties should be required, by law, to meet both the patient and the personal family care physician or at a minimum their representative.  No two patients are alike.   Even if they have the same diagnosis, the likelihood of them needing the same exact treatment is extremely slight.  Just as an individual citizen is expected to take the time to cast their individual vote in an election, they should also be afforded the same individual time and consideration in reference to their medical care.

 

There will always be patients that “pull the wool” over their physician’s eyes.  There will always be those that seek prescription drugs with the sole intention of misusing and mishandling them.  We cannot punish a society for the wrong doings of a select few.  Just because there are individuals in our society that steal cars, we don’t quit selling them to the rest of the population.  Just because there are individuals in our society that steal cars, we don’t quit selling them to the rest of the population.   Just because there are individuals in our society that commit adultery, we don’t put a stop to all marriages.  These solutions would be silly and would wreak havoc on our society.   So, we need to ask our legislators to explain why because individuals choose to deal, sell, and misuse drugs, why are the medical boards and DEA stopping physicians and patients from continuing to build quality-of-life building treatment plans and courses of actions?

 

Everyone should be afforded the same rights.  We live in America.   We live in the land of freedom.   Then why are we allowing a medical board comprised of a handful of trained professionals to smother the freedoms of an entire state?  Why do we expect our citizens to absorb all their responsibilities and be held accountable for their actions, yet still restrict their privileges? 

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