Letters to the editor for Jan. 10

Treating pain in the age of the opioid crisis

The article regarding the “bupe clinic” on Dec. 30 indicated 40% of their patients have legitimate chronic pain. If this is true then it seems wrong that these people are being denied real pain medicine. Perhaps many of these people could become more productive citizens if their pain was treated.

Recently I visited Capital Medical Center with terrible back pain and lightheadedness. I took an ambulance because I didn’t want to be on the road driving in this condition. After doing a blood test and an IV, I was told nothing was wrong and sent away. I returned later that day on the insistence of an orthopaedic doctor whom I had an appointment with. This time I drove because I thought I was okay.

It turned out I was very anemic from a bleeding ulcer. The ulcer was somehow causing the back pain. The ER medical professionals assumed I was a drug seeker on that first visit. As I recovered in the ICU over the next three days, a nurse told me I wasn’t the only one with bleeding ulcers caused by taking too much aspirin.

The anti-opioid fever has gone way too far in the opposite direction. People with legitimate pain issues are hurting and I almost died. You people better keep that in mind.

A clean Puget Sound by 2020?

In 2007, the Washington State Legislature passed a law that dedicated the state to achieving a “clean and healthy Puget Sound by 2020” and established a new state agency, the Puget Sound Partnership, to oversee the effort and be accountable for results. A difficult, science-based and multi-year process created water quality, species and habitat numeric targets that needed to be accomplished in order to achieve the overall goal.

For example, the 2020 target for orca recovery was 95 individuals. Today, the population is 73, and scientists say that the species will go extinct when that number reaches 70.

Another example is that the Department of Natural Resources was made responsible for achieving a net increase of 20 percent in eelgrass beds in Puget Sound by 2020. Eelgrass is critical to forage fish, that are critical to salmon, that are critical to orcas. The general media have not reported on the status of eelgrass or many of the other 2020 targets the way they have for orcas.

Because the Puget Sound Partnership is the accountable agency, they should be reporting on targets and other issues pertaining to Puget Sound. But they are silent. Is this accountability? Is this what Washington state taxpayers get for their money? A dirty Puget Sound, silence, and no accountability by 2020?

In the past 13 years, it is likely that things are worse for Puget Sound. It’s on the Partnership to tell the truth and motivate action.