LIFE
Defending Fentanyl
Don’t demonize the drugs that make my life and those of millions of others bearable
I use fentanyl every day. I am physically dependent on it. I rely on it to live my life. I am not an addict.
Every 72 or so hours, I remove a patch bearing the opioid from a foil package, peel off the plastic sheets protecting it, and stick it to a shoulder, waiting for the relief it will bring. The opioid is 50 times more powerful than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine, says the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
I suffer from intense chronic pain caused by a genetic disease that deforms my joints. I was diagnosed at age six. The places where my bones come together — particularly the long ones that attach at the shoulders, hips, and knees — wore down and became severely arthritic, causing extreme pain. This includes my lower back and neck, where I also endure stenosis, scoliosis, and bone spurs. I’ve had my hips replaced four times (two on each side), both knees replaced, both shoulders replaced, and my ankles fused.
As a result, I deal with chronic pain from head to toe, all day, every day.
The fentanyl, a synthetic drug developed and used successfully for surgeries since the 1960s, doesn’t erase my pain. It simply…
