Avoid the Dangers of Opioid Addiction with Chiropractic
A vast majority of arrests in the U.S. are for drug violations. According to the FBI, drug violation arrest was the single largest reason for arrest in 2012. Ironically most of the drug arrests were for mere possession. It’s so common that every 42 seconds someone in the U.S. is arrested for drugs according to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
The Drug and Opioid Addiction Hypocrisy
Considering the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on marketing drugs to the public it is no wonder that opioid
addiction is so pervasive throughout our country. The United States is one of two countries in the world that allows advertising prescriptions drugs directly to patients. The current epidemic of opioid overdoses will never change in a culture brainwashing the public into relying primarily on drugs for their healthcare.
It’s a total contradiction to tell people to say no to drugs while conversely telling them the best healthcare is dependent on treating symptoms with addictive drugs. As a chiropractor, I see patients on a daily basis that have chronic pain as a result of problems that are not addressed or corrected with the drug model. It’s easy to judge other people for being immoral or weak when you don’t understand the physical or emotional pain they are going through. They are told the only way to treat these issues is with drugs. When the opioids fail to treat the cause of the problem and they build a tolerance to them and become addicted, they are told THEY are the problem. The real problem is the failure of the medical healthcare model.
Patients are then required to find solutions to their problem on their own.
It’s true that conservative treatment with chiropractic, nutrition, herbal therapy or exercise is likely the only options capable of correcting or safely helping with their problem. The problem is that all that most people are unaware of the effectiveness of chiropractic or other holistic healthcare. It’s no surprise when you see the amount of marketing money being used to effectively indoctrinate the public into thinking that the option they have is a drug model that turns their back on them when it fails.
Desperate and unaware of the benefits of chiropractic care, many of these patients turn to unlawful means to find prescription drugs illegally or other illegal drugs to manage their pain or problem. Then we put them in jail and shame them for following the cultural norm of “drugs are the answer to health problems”. Many people are taking drugs and are not “bad people”. They take them because they are in physical, mental or emotional pain and the media tells them that drugs and surgery are the only ways towards health.
Some of them turn to cannabis which is far safer than pharmaceutical drugs. Cannabis use is very effective at treating pain and symptoms but has a lot of risks financially, culturally and legally. While I am an advocate for access to safe and effective treatments like cannabis, even with its use it is often still not treating the cause of the problem for chronic pain patients.
Drugs Will Never Correct the Cause
Chronic neck pain, back pain, sciatica, disc bulge, disc herniation, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, etc. are never caused due to a lack of pharmaceutical drugs. The vast majority of opioid drug use starts with chronic pain patients. The cause of chronic pain is rarely talked about never diagnosed properly by the medical community. Why? Because they don’t have the training necessary to identify or treat the problem which is almost always linked back to the abnormal shape and structure of the spine.
In order to change this opioid addiction epidemic, we don’t need more insurance we need more accountability for our healthcare system. Until the medical community has to rely on patients paying directly for services, medical costs will never change. The increase in opioid addictions will continue to increase. Relying on insurance reimbursement favors drug treatments instead of safer and more effective conservative treatments like chiropractic. Mandated health insurance will only create more expensive medical costs and force more people to rely on ineffective and addictive drug treatments.
This current healthcare model doesn’t encourage patients to spend money on healthcare that actually works. Instead, it encourages patients to utilize only health care that is covered by insurance. This allows hospitals and drug companies to increase their fees, which are hidden by insurance reimbursements. We have to let the market decide, not the government, not insurance companies. More or “better” insurance will not create better health, only more drug addicts.
Chiropractic patients never become addicted to chiropractic.
As a chiropractor, I am able to assist many patients (when they want to and work with their MD) get off of prescription drugs by fixing the cause of the problem instead of covering it up with poisons. Medical care is a gateway to addiction and drug dependency. Thankfully chiropractic and holistic health care do not have this risk.
It’s time for medicine and the public and the government to acknowledge the hypocrisy of using drugs to improve health. Drugs are great for emergency situations which constitute a very small minority of overall healthcare costs. Sadly, we use them for almost everything and the wonder why the “unsafe” illegal drugs are so often used. If you look down on these people and ignore the aspirin, heart meds, BP, meds, cholesterol meds, diabetes meds, depression meds, caffeine etc. you’re being very hypocritical. This is exponentially true in the case of cannabis which is far safer than any pharmaceutical drug, alcohol, and tobacco.
The Drug War Has Failed
We should be spending this money on dangerous crimes and crimes with a victim i.e. theft, murder, rape. The best way to avoid wasted money on a failed drug war is to give people a safe and effect way towards better health i.e. structurally focused chiropractic, whole food supplements, herbal therapy, exercise and other holistic means.
