But what /u/JohnDenverExperience is saying is that we have to stop treating chronic pain patients like they're the ones doing this shit criminally. This is a subject close to me in many ways, and I've seen just how these ridiculous "drug laws" are hurting legitimate patients. Drug laws aren't going to get illegal drug addicts off the damn shit, it's just going to hurt the people who rely on this kind of medication to not kill themselves from the chronic pain.

We need major drug reform in the US. Medical marijuana needs to be legalized across the board. Ibogaine needs to be legalized and clinics set up, and more research poured into this miracle drug if we ever want to see addicts having a chance to beat the demon that it opiate withdrawl. We really need to try something like the wildly successful legalized heroin clinics too, stop punishing addicts for being addicted and realize just how varied any individual addicts story may be. We need to give a chance for people to steady themselves and get back on their feet. Stop tying them to methadone clinics where they need to go thee times a day to get their maintinence doses because taking it home is illegal. We need to teat the reason many people become addicted in the first place, mental health issues, physical pain, and more.

Generally America needs to humanize addicts, which...hah. That's a long road. Instead we're going the opposite way and demonizing chronic pain patients too instead! There's a real resentment in the chronic pain community for illegal addicts for this very reason, but they need to be mad at the government allowing this to happen, not the guy with the needle in his arm.