AMERICAN PAIN INSTITUTE,
ARKANSAS CHAPTER
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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