Hey, we haven't screwed with the vets enough yet. Let's pile on some more abuse:
New federal rules that make it harder to get narcotic painkillers are taking an unexpected toll on thousands of veterans who depend on these prescription drugs to treat a wide variety of ailments, such as missing limbs and post-traumatic stress.
The restrictions, adopted last summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration to curb a national epidemic of opioid abuse, are for the first time, in effect, forcing veterans to return to the doctor every month to renew their medication, although many were already struggling to get appointments at overburdened VA health facilities. And even if patients can get appointments, the new rules pose an additional hardship for many who live a good distance from the health centers.
Although the tighter regulation applies to everyone on opioid painkillers, it’s hitting veterans especially hard because so many are being treated for horrific injuries sustained during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and have become dependent on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ beleaguered health-care system for medical care.
This is just -- what is the word I'm searching for? oh yeah -- disgraceful. I think I've written before here that it's always seemed odd to me that we create such powerful pain medications that people get hooked on them, then punish them for getting hooked. To put vets -- especially ones suffering from war trauma -- through this medication nonsense is unconscionable.
