Day: 11/22/2014

4/1/2005, The Myth of Available Pain Care

This is a long article, but a good read from the doctor’s point of view.  As you can see, things seem to have gotten worse since 2005, but they’ve also remained the same.

http://fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-myth-of-available-pain-care

The appearance of poverty is another red flag. All it takes for a doctor to be targeted is a pharmacist who becomes uneasy with the looks of a patient and responds by lodging a complaint. Then the game is on. Police respond by conducting surveillance. Patients with a shabby appearance are observed and are assumed to be drug addicts intent on scoring a fix. Here, again, the drug war collides with medical reality. Chronic pain is a disease, which predictably reduces its victims to poverty and a poor appearance. It accomplishes this by limiting or removing the ability to engage in gainful employment or even to care for oneself properly. As a result, patients suffering from this disease often just don’t look good. Physicians are arrested over this sort of “evidence.”

2010 Price per gram of top strain, by dispensary

Budding Hope………………………………$15
Cannaceutics……………………………… $15*
CG Corrigan……………………………….. $14.28 (2013)
Compassionate Distributors………….. $14.46 (2013)
Fruit of the Earth…………………………. $12.15
G&G Genetics…………………………….. $11.43 (at New Mexicann, 2013)
GrassRoots………………………………… $10
Healthy Education……………………….. $15 (2013)
High Desert………………………………… $14
Medzen……………………………………… $15
Minerva……………………………………… $14
MJ Express………………………………… $12
Mother Earth………………………………. $15
Natural RX…………………………………. $16
New MexiCann…………………………… $11.43
New Mexico Alt Care…………………… (Unable to locate)
New Mexico Top…………………………. $14
R. Greenleaf………………………………. $12.50
Red Barn Growers………………………. $13 (at Medzen)
Sacred Garden…………………………… $13
Sandia……………………………………….. $15
SWOP……………………………………….. $18
Verdes…………………………………………$12.85

(Originally posted on 3/17/2014 at nmcannabisreview.com)

Cost of producing cannabis

From R. Greenleaf Newsletter dated February 17, 2014:

As the Executive Director of a nonprofit producer I know that the cost of producing a gram of medicine is not $12. It’s not $7. It’s far closer to $2-$3.

If the spirit of the legislation had been enforced, and producers had been able to provide safe access to medicine to all of their patients I am certain that R. Greenleaf Organics would now be offering their high quality medicine at between $5 and $6 dollars a gram.

Willie Ford
Executive Director – R. Greenleaf Organics

Monthly Costs of Treatments for Chronic Pain

Previously (for me):
30-day supply of Generic Hydrocodone (10mg)
$2 (2008)
$4 (2009)
$5 (2010)
Free (2011)

30-day supply of Generic Oxycodone (15mg)
$2 (2008)
$4 (2009)
$5 (2010)
Free (30mg) (2011)

($170, health insurance)

Others throughout the years:
$1, Oxycodone (40mg) (2007)
$2, Meperidine (generic Demerol) (50mg) (2008)
$30, Lidoderm patches (2009)
Free, Alprazolam (2mg) (every year)

Currently (2013/14) (for me):
$1,800 for “adequate supply” of cannabis
$0.99, generic aspirin
($142, health insurance)

2012 Uninsured Prices:
$20, Generic Methadone (30mg/day)
$48, Generic Morphine (extended-release 30mg/day)
$270, MS-Contin (120mg/day)
$319, Generic Oxymorphone (sustained-release 30mg/day)
$1,031, Oxycontin (sustained-release 160mg/day)*

*Most expensive on the complete list, which can be found (in both English and Spanish) at the link below.

Consumer Reports Health Best Buy Drugs™, Using Opioids to Treat: Chronic Pain, Comparing Effectiveness, Safety, and Price (July 2012)

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/best-buy-drugs/opioids.htm