I am writing this email to bring to your attention a current problem with the Veterans administration and the Federal policy concerning opioid pain medication. While I am aware that an opioid problem does exist in this country, I believe the current restrictions by the Federal Government concerning pain medication is a one size fits all policy that is negatively affecting many veterans nationwide. I am a disabled Veteran and in the approximately 15 years I have been on pain medication I have never once called in to say I lost my medication or that they were stolen and needed to be filled early. In doing a Google search I found there are many Veterans dealing with the same issues trying to refill medication while traveling. There are many of us that use our medications responsibly and have tried everything to try to deal with our chronic pain.
Every VA facility I spoke with was able to pull up my records to verify who I was and what medications I was in need of and when they were last filled. Because of the current Federal policy concerning opioids where they can only be prescribed by my primary physician and can only be picked up or mailed to me I was unable to fill them anywhere in this country. Because my records are available from any VA facility I can see no reason that I should not be able to go to any VA facility in this country and have my medications refilled. Every refill is documented and would prevent someone from going to multiple VA facilities to refill and abuse their medications but would allow those of us that travel and responsibly use their medications to get refills while traveling. I am asking that the current policy concerning pain medications through the VA be amended so that Veterans like myself are able to travel freely and still have access to much needed medications.
I would like to speak with someone concerning this issue and possible solutions
