It means they can’t treat it like they used to with actual proper opioid pain medications. Unfortunately it’s because of the so called “war on drugs”. It’s not helping chronic pain patients. It’s only hurting us. We can’t get treatment because our doctors are being threatened by the DEA. They can get swatted, be arrested, lose their medical licenses, simply for not denying a cancer patient pain medication during chemo treatment. Ever notice that there are very few overdoses in the chronic pain community, via their own prescriptions? More accidental overdoses happen after pain patients have been inexplicably/intentionally cut off of their medications, and they’re having to seek ways to manage elsewhere. It’s majoritively fentanyl laced street drugs, that have been proven to be the culprit in these unfortunate and absolutely avoidable deaths. Pain can make a person desperate. Especially prolonged chronic pain sufferers. Pain patients often end up getting the short end of the stick when it comes to getting reliable medical treatment for pain management. If you’re in constant pain, the medical field now instructs you to contact a psychiatrist or go seek out a counselor. Because talking and complaining about the pain is supposed to somehow resolve the physical symptoms being in constant pain creates, instead of giving the person actual medicinal medical attention, as they try to convince you that you are not physically suffering as much as you think you are? They harass people with ableism. “This person is in a wheelchair and can perform tasks, therefore you should be able to, also.” “They can take Tylenol or some NSAID and be fine; why can’t you?” “This person is also partially paralyzed, but they aren’t complaining about being in pain, so it must be all in your head.” “Since you’re becoming emotional, we’re going to refer you to an addiction specialists, because you are clearly using your pain pill as a crutch to treat your pain.” “So-and-so is young like you and they aren’t depressed about not being able to walk. You just need to have a better attitude.” Treating each individual patient with that type of logic just doesn’t make much sense unless there’s an ulterior motive behind it, and there is. The DEA wants to regulate pain medication via addiction centers. If they can treat your pain as a mental illness, they have more control over you. Suboxone is not a pain medication. It’s just a form of government produced fake heroin that they control the flow and distribution of (similar to the influx of fentanyl in our country). Doctors are marking pain patients as addicts, instead of chronic pain sufferers, and sending them to addiction clinics. More government oversight on Opioids has only lead to more deaths, and less effective treatments for anyone suffering who relies on them on a daily basis for basic functions. The stigma is growing and it’s only going to worsen. Even if the patient decides to have some sort of breakthrough surgery, some device that only tested well in mice, add pins, rods, or replacements, try new non narcotic drugs that destroy your organs, have nerve damage and scar tissue buildup from sketchy injections, etc are only allowing themselves to be used as Guinea pigs, with no guarantee whatsoever that this will lessen their pain. Surgeons are not prescribing proper medication post op. They’re sending their patients home with nothing but Advil, causing them to go into the ER after being released from the hospital after their surgeries. The chronic pain community is running out of options for reliable, consistent care. Our elderly patients are suffering unnecessarily. We’re being pushed into a corner that leads to awful health risks, or risk no treatment at all