Author's posts
Uncovering the real story behind opioid prescriptions and deaths
As a non-clinician patient advocate and health care writer, I am frequently reminded of a quotation attributed to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain): “Figures don’t lie. But liars figure.” I am also aware of a second quotation from economist…
From advocacy to early cancer detection
I write widely as a patient advocate and subject matter expert on public policy for the regulation of prescription opioid analgesics in pain medicine. Like many people younger than myself, I also visit many social media platforms almost daily. I am act…
Rethinking U.S. opioid policy
I write widely as a subject matter expert on U.S. policy for the regulation of prescription opioid pain relievers and of clinicians who employ them in managing their patients’ chronic pain. Because I am a patient advocate and the spouse of a chro…
Everything the government thinks it knows about the opioid crisis is wrong
“In July 2015, journalist Johann Hari gave a TED Talk that over 20 million people have since viewed. Hari offered convincing evidence that vulnerability to opioid addiction is a consequence of the conditions under which people live — the social d…
How misused terminology and biased studies may be misguiding our understanding of opioid addiction and mortality
As a health care writer and policy analyst, I frequently encounter the term “risk” in discussions of medical issues. I also frequently see the term grossly misused in both the popular press and medical literature. Nowhere is this more evide…
The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame
We’ve all heard about America’s so-called “opioid epidemic.” Nearly 100,000 people died in 2021 of causes that included overdose by one or more narcotic drugs and often alcohol. We also hear assertions from anti-opioid advocates…
