I think that everything that Washington does is motivated by votes and lobbies. I'm sure that the pharmaceutical lobbies are very powerful, but insurance companies also have very powerful lobbies and I'm sure that they are getting tired of paying for these drugs.

The legalize marijuana lobby is rapidly growing and who knows how much influence they have placed on politicians. After all, no research has really been done on marijuana.

Every other legal drug on the market has been tested multiple times, first on animals and then on humans. The main concern is the deleterious effects that these drugs have had.

I'm not taking a position on whether or not marijuana is effective, I'm just saying that several states have legalized it without any of the testing that other drugs go through. Legalization was basically a political move.

It is still illegal on the federal level by the way. The federal government could come into a state and shut down all marijuana production and sales.

Do you think that there are no lobbies representing pain management clinics? That wasn't even a medical specialty until recently.

From what I've read, well over 90% of all problems with opioids are related to illegal use. Ninety percent of the people who have had the medication prescribed legally and are using them as directed have no problem.

I have to ask why are they going to hard after the legal users?

I'm not much of a conspiracy guy, but I am very suspicious of our government.

I go to Dr P..(Pannimaneni). He’s a great dr,

My sister worked for a pain management doctor and they were able to help many people with other treatments besides pain pills. Please keep an open mind, and I hope you find relief!

I saw Dr Panamenanni today. He kept me on the Tramadol and added Gabapentin.

I now have to take a toxicology screening every three months.

It appears that all the government. So it appears that what these 87 opioid laws have done was to make us jump through a few more hoops in order to get our needed medication.

From what I've read, well in excess of 90% of the problems with opioids are related to illegal use. Also, over 90% of the people who use them according to directions have no problems.

Why does the government choose to focus on the legal users who the medication is helping rather than the illegal users?

Gabapentin is a non-narcotic pain reliever that really helped me a whole lot, I thought we found a miracle drug until about two-three weeks in. Overnight the part of my leg from the knee to my feet at least doubled in size. What a shame because other than this side effect it was very helpful. I had to come off it slowly as stopping it entirely was out of the question.

Good luck finding the way that helps you best. It is a shame that it is such a mission.

The vet put our dog on gabapentin. He's 85 lbs. He became so loopy he couldn't balance. They took him off of it after five days. But it did the trick, which was to get him to leave the wound on his tail alone.