Frog Applause by Teresa Burritt for December 13, 2018

Hello? … Hello? … Can someone help me? … I seem to have lost touch with Froglandia and wish to stagger & fall back into it … anyone there? … hello? ….

Because if they catch you doing the first thing, they’ll make you do the second thing.

These decisions are being made by people who don’t have pain and don’t care enough about the pain that people suffer. Causing pain by withholding medication is torture and murder.

Absod@mnf*ckingly right.

“Used to be that newspaper comic strips were called the funny papers, but there’s no funny in this one, unless you’re a greedy sadist,” was what I wrote on the faceplace.

Illegal drugs are probably the best option, I always think of who made them illegal in the first place. They had my mom on opioids and she’s in her 70s, the replacement for those drugs has left her strung out. I told her she should get some herb but I’m no doctor besides that medical cannabis is still pretty expensive for someone on a fixed income. There are few if any options, illegal may be the way to go and death lasts a long time.

The good Dr. analyzing the anal of reason for suicide, the body is a terrible thing to waste.

As far as I can tell, more people use opioids for psychological pain instead of physical pain.

To save time and money, we make the drugs illegal and expensive, then wait for the users to get a hot shot of fentanyl. This allows us to maintain a process where we prescribe opioids, cut patients off from them, and still give them a 50/50 chance of living. This eliminates the need for patients to make a bad decision, while in the throes of withdrawal, to become a suicide.

A direct effect of healthcare for profit.

People with money are killing us so that they can make more money.

Thank you, Teresa.

The best drawing depicting self-abnegation I’ve ever seen. Great strip today, Ms. T.

Really good one, Teresa. Unfortunately, too true. I’ve known far too many people who have had their lives destroyed because of opioid addiction, including an ex-stepson. The pain of withdrawal magnifies the real pain that the opioid was masking by 1,000% !

We all have pain. Every one of us. Some learn over time to work through it. Some longer than others. Some just keep trying to squash it with drugs, alcohol, religion, political extremism, food, violence, etc. It’ll still be there waiting for you to work through it once you stop trying to squash it. Be brave.

On the other side: A nephew had a wisdom tooth removed. The doctor insisted he get a large prescription of an opioid, right away, and from the nearby Publix pharmacy. He was not going to let the young man go until he had that prescription. My nephew said he had very little pain. Mom took him out over the strong protests, he got the prescription anyway, took one pill, and didn’t need any more. The remaining pills got flushed. If he had obeyed the doctor, he might well have become addicted on the large quantity of pills. I suspect that there are “legal” pushers who maybe get payback from pharmacies, overprescribe, collect their bribes, and leave the patient with a habit. I agree that painkillers should be used as long as needed, but when they are no longer needed for pain, there has to be some way to get people off this addiction, and without having to pay for treatment. Let’s not blame only the “witholders”. The pushers are the culprits in many cases.

Mike Altman, call your office (this is why directors don’t let cartoonists write the lyrics to theme songs).

Thank you for underlining the problem that so many people face in such a clear way. It’s truly a plague.

The reasons for pain are endless and debatable, that doesn’t change the fact that the system is inadequate, myopic and often unethical.

I’m smiling with pain on my face… not by accident but because I’ve had some bad breaks, literally and figuratively.

Being (as usual) late to post here, most of the salient points on this serious (rather than humorous) cartoon have been made or at least touched upon already. I would hope that the quotational Voice does not choose Option Three, no matter how hard dealing with One or Two would be, There should be an Option for legal heavy-duty pain suppressants. I do not have a solution for all the complex troubles with healthcare in this country, but I do look to First Principles, as in the Hippocratic Oath….

Provided, that were you had sat, are seated comfortably exactly were you are sitting..

I wasn’t sure if it was possible for me to admire you any more than before now, Teresa, but I do. You are amazing in so many ways. I wish I could express myself better to help you understand the depth of my admiration.

I am still waiting for the very red state to legalize marijuana so I can stop taking them, I know from experience it help with pain. it’s to bad our government and the drug industry {who are mostly to blame for this crisis] who fills their war chest of a certain political party I shall not name who follow a paranoid out look from the 1950’s.