Opinion | Chronic Pain Patients Need -- And Want -- Non-Opioid Options

We have all heard the phrase "Suck it up!" And most of do that easily. I sucked up a lot of pain for years I had chronic wide-spread pain, and military medicine doesn't help much, Doc will give you motrin, and send you back to work. That's his job, to keep the manpower working and ready for battle. Not much use if your pain is chronic and un-diagnosed and treated in-correctly. NSAIDs like Motrin aren't supposed to be used long-term, because they become less effective, and damage your liver. I had a bottle of naproxen that I carried in my uniform trousers, and in my backpack when I was in civies. But years of sucking up the pain took it's toll, I had trouble sleeping at night, I often would go 36 to 48 hours with no sleep, and sometimes when the exhaustion was bad enough, I couldn't sit anywhere for very long, my because I would fall asleep. Judgement was affected, I made a mistake, and I got fired as The Combat Systems Officer of the Watch.
That hurt worse than all the pain in my body I was busy sucking up.
Our military medicine works for the federal government, so modern medicine and agencies like the FDA isn't just an advisory to your Doc: it's practically a religious doctrine.
When I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I was prescribed a pharmecutical drug that wasn't very effective, but had some nasty side effects. I took it for 15 months before convincing my Primary Care Provider to take me off it.
I found my medicine after I retired, and I believe it's the answer to the opioid addiction epidemic that is literally killing our veterans. Cannabis.
If anyone remembers Zumwalt's Navy (before my time, but I know some veterans from that
time, and I read a lot), you would know that Marijuana used to be tolerated in the Navy.
I'm not advocating this for everyone, but I think it were removed from the DEA's Schedule and more veterans had access to this medicine, it could save thousands of lives, and make the quality of life for our veterans better.

Thank you for the article.