Please Help! Pain Patients Are Dying! Support Illinois HB 5373!

In Illinois, pain patients are a very marginalized and stigmatized community. Pain medicine prescriptions continue to decrease, as doctors become afraid of legal reprisal, while we have a record number of overdose fatalities. Previously stable patients on long-term pain therapy have taken their lives or, in desperation, been forced to resort to the illicit market, which has caused even more overdoses. Illinois has one of the lowest prescribing rates in the US but the 14th highest number of deadly overdoses. Recent data reveals that not a single overdose fatality is attributable to prescription pain medicine. The state agencies are substituting their judgment for doctors and destroying the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship.

Many people are unaware of the toll that restrictive state policies have taken on Illinoisans. Oncologists have decreased prescriptions by 50%. Children with terminal illnesses are denied pain relief. Veterans, who became injured serving our country, have lost access to their medicine—to such an extent that suicides increased by over 1/3. Millions of Illinoisans are one accident away from being a chronic pain patient, and even palliative care and hospice specialists are turning people away because they’re afraid of legal consequences.

The American Pain & Disability Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that tries to protect the pain community. We have to fight with hospitals who won't give terminally ill children pain medicine, veterans who served us but are now in terrible pain from combat injuries, and more---but we can't protect doctors and patients as they need to be protected without legislation. The current policies are harming one of the most vulnerable communities in the state. You can visit our website for more information, at www.4APDF.org.

Please support HB 5373 to protect pain patients and their healthcare providers—countless lives depend on it! Sign the petition to help get this bill passed now!