This woman lost her son to an overdose when he became addicted to oxycontin after back surgery.
http://www.kutv.com/...
It apparently wasn't the fault of the guy in pain who apparently had addictive issues (one comment on the original story says he was into heroin as well). To be fair, I know about people in pain. You'll do a lot to make it stop hurting.
It apparently wasn't the fault of the doctors who were treating him.
It certainly isn't the fault of Mom, who apparently didn't know any of this was happening. (There's more than a little sarcasm in there, in case it's not obvious.)
No, it's the part of that evil drug, oxycontin, and that drug must be stopped.
There is a lot of unsympathetic sarcasm in this diary. The reason will become obvious.
A Utah mother, who lost her son to prescription drugs is taking her case to the nation’s capitol. She is fighting to get the drug OxyContin taken off the market.
She believes it's too strong, too addictive and too many people are dying as a result
"Oh, my Precious Poopsie Poppet stubbed his toe on the stairs! Stairs are too dangerous! Ban stairs!"
Toe stubbing is not drug addiction. But while I don't have statistics, I'm going to bet that more people die on stairs than on oxycontin.
My husband has a degenerative joint condition, his joints are slowly coming apart. He was a wildland fire fighter for several years, jumping out of helicopters into forest fires. Nearly half his spine has been replaced by titanium, with more surgeries planned. He's on oxycontin, along with several other narcotics, but the only thing he's addicted to is functioning somewhat normally.
I don't have a good grasp of addiction. Me, I'm addicted to caffeine, but I have a steady job and I get through the day about as well as anyone else. Hubby is under the care of a pain specialist and has to see him every couple of months to make sure he's doing OK with the heavy drugs he's on.
Here's where the unsympathy comes in: I'm sorry this woman lost her son, but if it wasn't oxycontin, it would have been something else. She's looking for something else to blame rather than someone not doing their job or her son simply being unable to cope.
I don't know who she's going to talk to in Washington. She'll probably talk to the Utah reps, Hatch, Bennett, Chaffetz, Christiansen. I'm putting together letters to send to them to counter her. I'm hoping she'll get sympathy and nothing else, because oxycontin helps thousands of people, including my husband.
The cynical part of me says, "You think there should be strong bans on guns, how is that different from this drug?" There are uses for guns other than stupid people doing stupid things with them. It's an interesting dichotomy. But Hubby's life wouldn't be fundamentally changed if he didn't have a gun. He wouldn't be whimpering in his sleep from the pain, as he does when the drugs aren't working.