"A painful truth: To cut opioid use, patients have to be smarter about their own discomfort"

From JSOnline:

George "Chip" Morris Published 11:39 a.m. CT Feb. 9, 2018 | Updated 12:00 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2018

At a "Hope over Heroin" gathering in October at the Rock County Fairgrounds, helium balloons were released in memory of each of the 34 county residents who died from an overdose in 2016.(Photo: Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

“What are we doing now? People are dying, and your grants sound interesting for you, but what are you going to do now?”

That was Rafael Mercado of the activist group MKE Heroin Diaries during a recent meeting of the Milwaukee City-County Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force. Mercado knows all about the trauma that drug abuse can cause. He has lived it, as have thousands of other people in Wisconsin.

And so Rafael asks a great question: “What do we do now?” 

One prescription I'd offer: pain literacy.

We need to help people understand and use information on pain and its management. It is one thing that we can do right now.

Read more:  https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/02/09/opioid-epidemic-drug-abuse-being-fought-milwaukee-many-fronts/309116002/