If you read the news, you know that the presiding narrative on the opioid crisis is that it is being driven by prescriptions for opioid medication. While that premise would certainly make fighting the crisis a simple proposition, the only thing simple about it is that it is false. Sadly, it isn’t only the usual peddlers of fake news who are reporting this falsehood. It is also being promoted by respectable news outlets such as the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Old Grey Lady herself, the New York Times.
If you are a pain patient and you feel that you are a casualty of the government-manufactured hysteria over prescription pain medication, here is a chance to make your voice heard. The New York Times wants to hear from you!
On January 12th, the New York Times posted a survey on their website entitled “Help Shape the New York Times’s Opioid Coverage.”
“The devastating effects of opioid abuse are rippling through families and neighborhoods across the United States. To improve our coverage we are seeking to learn more about what our readers are looking for. Tell us what kinds of stories you’d like to see us cover.”
Please, visit the New York Times online and take this survey.
- Do tell them that you want them to cover the devastating effect that the crackdown on opioid prescriptions is having on pain patients.
- Don’t be long-winded about how this crackdown has affected you personally. They aren’t looking to interview you, just to hear what you want them to cover.
- Don’t put this off. The survey has been live for nearly two weeks. Do it now or you might miss your chance.
FPAA’s Opioid Policy Editor, Richard A. “Red” Lawhern, Ph.D., is on a mission to change the national conversation about opioid medication and its role in the current crisis of heroin and synthetic fentanyl overdoses. In addition to being the co-founder and corresponding secretary of the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain (ATIP,) Red has written numerous articles on the subject, as well as letters to legislators and editors, which can be found in the Lawhern Files, right here at Face Facts. Join Red in his fight for pain patients’ rights and respond to this survey today!
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