Chronic pain sufferers shouldn’t be punished

What is the point of having painkillers if those in pain can't have them? That is like 'throwing the baby out with the bath water,” to repeat an old saying my mother used.

I know several people who have chronic pain from back injuries and fibromyalgia. They are not abusing opioids, and yet their doctors have abruptly stopped prescribing Tramadol for their chronic pain. They don't overuse or misuse the medicine, yet UnityPoint suddenly ordered their doctors to stop prescribing. Don't the doctors know best for their individual patients? Or maybe the doctors just don't care?

I write this because I care about all of the people caught in the middle of the war on drugs. I care about the people who now suffer more than they need to, and nobody talks about them.

Terri Gagliardi

Marion