I couldn't agree with you more, Philip. Our government here gives lip service to wanting to help pain patients, but then does everything in their power to make it more difficult for us to get adequate pain relief. And you're right – the "war on drugs" has been a catastrophic disaster. It's done little to nothing to reduce drug abuse but has created a multi-billion dollar bureaucracy that we can't seem to get rid of.
Actually, when I mentioned that the FDA is considering placing even tighter restrictions on the prescription of opioids, I wasn't thinking of the possibility of removing drugs with acetaminophen in them – although that is certainly a serious concern. But an even greater concern to me is the fact that they are developing "Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies" to try to put tighter controls on the use of opioids. Here's an article I wrote about it: URGENT: FDA May Remove or Limit Access to Opioid Pain Medications
As you'll see when you read the article, this could be a disaster for chronic pain patients. If they follow through with these ideas, I'm afraid we'll see a significant increase in suicides as you mentioned. What is sad is that these kinds of restrictions never seem to deter those who are determined to abuse drugs. They just make life miserable for honest people who are in pain and just trying to have some quality of life.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Karen