re: How to tell if someone is abusing painkillers?

quote:

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Good chance someone is taking 4-8 lortabs Orally a day and you would have zero clue unless you saw them taking it.

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This. Been taking 40mg - 60mg of hydrocodone daily for 13+ years, and no one but my doctor, my wife, and one good friend is even aware.

I can--and do--go days without it. Just load up on Naproxen and bite the bullet for the aches/pains it doesn't touch. Hydro abstinence is a bitch since I'm treating, among other things, chronic leg pain caused by an epic battle I lost with a chainsaw, and multiple blown discs from a parachuting mishap. Regardless, I've been taking the same dose of the same medicine for well over a decade, and I have zero desire to increase the daily dose.

All of that said, I guess I'm technically, clinically "addicted," but hydro allows me to perform my job (climbing poles/ladders/towers and doing other strenuous physical labor) and yet lead a normal, pain-free life. So, I'm fine with whatever label society wants to apply. frick 'em all.

I'm not fine with all the goddamn restrictions the FDA/DEA or whomever continues to add to obtaining my prescriptions. Although I'd never do it myself, I can certainly understand the desire some folks have to use heroin once the Government makes getting legal prescription meds too damn difficult/expensive.

All of that is just one more reason I'm a proud Libertarian: "Legalize it all and let Darwin's law take care of the rest."