77th (2013) Session
Opinions
View all submitted comments for each bill by the most recent, by votes for, or by votes against.
| SB75 | ||
| - | ||
| Against | I believe that this bill should not be passed. I strongly encourage that the legislature take it down. You can’t honestly blame a provider or doctor for someone’s own coming of addiction. It is reasonable to blame them for malpractice, or giving patients the incorrect dosage, but not for the ignorance of a formed addiction. Besides, people love to “beat the system”, and some may claim that their addiction was formed due to negligence of doctors, when they could have easily bought it off the streets or used it via a family member or friend. If a supporter of this bill counters with something like “they must have a prescription”, I argue that there are many phony doctors out there that can write fake prescriptions for people, and we’ll never know who’s being lawful in this case. Not only that, but a pharmacist’s job is already tough and stressful as it is. They try there hardest to make their prescriptions correct, and for the most part, have no malicious intent to kill anyone with the wrong prescription, or wrong dosage information. To blame them for something that’s out of their control, and possibly take money from them for it is absurd. By passing this bill, the legislature would be making these prescription drug providers and doctors scapegoats for anyone who possibly could want to get away with an addiction to them, and giving addicts an excuse to not only do what they do, but take money from the pockets of pharmacists for their own wrongdoing. Once again, I strongly discourage this bill from being passed at this legislative session, or any future sessions. | Apr-29-2013 |
| Against | I believe that this bill should not be passed. I strongly encourage that the legislature take it down. You can’t honestly blame a provider or doctor for someone’s own coming of addiction. It is reasonable to blame them for malpractice, or giving patients the incorrect dosage, but not for the ignorance of a formed addiction. Besides, people love to “beat the system”, and some may claim that their addiction was formed due to negligence of doctors, when they could have easily bought it off the streets or used it via a family member or friend. If a supporter of this bill counters with something like “they must have a prescription”, I argue that there are many phony doctors out there that can write fake prescriptions for people, and we’ll never know who’s being lawful in this case. Not only that, but a pharmacist’s job is already tough and stressful as it is. They try there hardest to make their prescriptions correct, and for the most part, have no malicious intent to kill anyone with the wrong prescription, or wrong dosage information. To blame them for something that’s out of their control, and possibly take money from them for it is absurd. By passing this bill, the legislature would be making these prescription drug providers and doctors scapegoats for anyone who possibly could want to get away with an addiction to them, and giving addicts an excuse to not only do what they do, but take money from the pockets of pharmacists for their own wrongdoing. Once again, I strongly discourage this bill from being passed at this legislative session, or any future sessions. | Apr-20-2013 |
| Against | As a practicing physician I belive this bill furhter reduce practitentioners willingness to treat legitimate pain, because of fear of prosecution. Drug addicts at time do have all of the same ailments that affect all of us. On those occasions they do need treatments with narcotics, to no treat them would be inhumane. If later they commit a crime it would be impossible to determine if the drug was obtained by them through a doctor or on the street. | Apr-08-2013 |
| Against | Dear Sirs, I am Board Certified in Pain Management, as a Pain Educator, in Psychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry and in Forensic Medicine. I am also a member of the American Pain Society. Please OPPOSE SB 75. I believe it will create far more harm than good. I would be happy to consult with any of you re: steps that I believe would reduce deaths from prescribed opiates, help prevent diversion, and appropriately treat those patients who legitimately have severe chronic benign pain. Thank you Respectfully, Robert Lynn Horne, MD Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association Clinical Professor of Psychiatry University of Nevada School of Medicine 3025 W. Sahara Avenue, Suite 200 Las Vegas, NV 89102 O: 702-822-1188 / F: 702-822-2020 C: 702-301-2555 | Apr-02-2013 |
| Against | Please do not place any more impedements to Doctors ability to perscribe pain medications to patients in need. Many Doctors.already hesitate or refuse to write such perscriptions for fear of coming under scrutiny of the DEA or other law enforcement agencies. | Mar-30-2013 |
| Against | This bill fails to define addiction. This bill puts doctors at risk of leaving the medical field. This bill further singles out doctors as "the bad guy" for simply treating patients for chronic pain. Does our legislature want our citizens who are forced to be dependent on these medications to be productive members of society to be bedridden instead? Pain management patients are not looking to get high. When you see what documents it takes to get a doctor to write these medicines, from x-rays to MRI's, and additional treatments required while taking them such as physical therapy, it should be clear these patients are just trying to live normal productive lives while living in chronic, miserable, depressing pain. I will be watching my representatives closely on this bill. Vote for it, and I will contribute against you and vote you out of office to be replaced by someone who understands compassion for the sick. Giving a sue happy populace more reason to sue is not compassion. | Mar-20-2013 |
| Against | This bill is a major mistake. People must take responsibility for their own actions. Anyone who takes prescription pain killers should be aware of the possibility of physical addiction. It is a conscious choice to improve the quality of life. Should a car manufacturer and the salesman who sold it be held responsible when a purchaser drives too fast and crashes that car causing injury or death? Our society has become far too litigious. Willing to sue at the slightest provocation or possibility of a payday. We do not need to make frivolous litigation any easier than it already is. The passage of this bill would unfairly impact those that truly need these medications to make it through the day without living in unbearable pain. Physicians must already pay exorbitant malpractice premiums. Passage of this Bill would increase these premiums substantially. These costs would of course be passed along to the consumer. | Mar-07-2013 |
| Against | The nanny state just gets bigger and bigger with bills like this. Healthcare providers licensed to prescribe medications are highly qualified professionals who already have many tools at their disposal to determine the medical needs and possible problems facing their patients. Let's not hamper them further with the threat of frivolous lawsuits when they are trying to ease the pain and suffering of their patients. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Vote no on SB75. | Mar-07-2013 |
| Against | Mar-07-2013 | |
| Against | Mar-07-2013 | |
| Against | To reduce overdose deaths,it will be necessary to work with our communities. Project Lazarus in North Carolina reduced OD deaths 69% from 2009 to 2011, and offered good pain relief to it's citizens. Their model works with doctors, law enforcement, patients, and policymakers. They screen patients for risk of overdose, teach about overdose risks, and supply patients and their families with an overdose reversal kit, that includes Naloxone (also called Narcan), an overdose antidote. Wilkes County, N.C. has a 28 month straight decline in overdose deaths. There are other programs working in this country as well. Please keep the focus on proven success. | Mar-07-2013 |
| Against | This bill would take away our personal choice as well as our personal responsibility. The unintended consequences of this bill are horrendous. I already hear stories of doctors who are afraid to prescribe enough pain meds to terminally ill patients because they worry that these poor people may become addicted. This bill would exacerbate that. Also, pharmaceutical companies would stop researching drugs that may have an addictive component and we would lose out on potentially life preserving drugs. Everywhere we look people are being absolved of their personal responsibilities by government and this can only end badly. We all need to grow up and be more responsible, not less, because we all lose our choices and our liberties this way. | Mar-07-2013 |
| Against | This is probably the dumbest piece of legilation I have ever heard of! What ever happened to "personal responsibility"? If this passes, Doctors will stop prescribing certain medications to avoid being sued. Persons who need the meds will not be able to get them because other idiots can't control their own lives. This is nuts. What "namby pamby" authored this? Have we fallen through the looking glass? | Mar-07-2013 |
| Against | Mar-07-2013 | |
| Against | This law is only going to make the disabled and eldery have a harder time and more cost getting meds they need to live on forever, and cannot hold the doctor anymore responsible for this than if someone goes to the limits of a vehicle and crashes and sues the car company or any other product that is used against warnings and instructions. We already have checks and balances for making sure legitimate patients are not getting too many meds. And what happened to personal responsibility? You are only going to make it harder for us and what about undiagnosed people? took me 18 years to figure it out because of the lack of specialist in Nevada. I went to the Senate Meeting today at 9a.m. and between the technical dificulties and Carson City taking up most of the meeting time as to give us in Las Vegas less than 15 minutes of time and kept interupting doctors speaking to cut down their time and us patients only one got to say anything. I believe this was done on purpose just to keep us from speaking we had 5-6 patients who wanted to speak never got the chance and Tick Segerbloom or anyone else who stands to gain should be having no part of this bill since their is a major conflict of interest considering he will profit from the passing of this bill along with others who back this bill with him. Let's compare this to Shelly Berkley what she did at airport and her husband benefited by doing business from it this is much worse. | Mar-06-2013 |
| Against | Mar-06-2013 | |
| Against | This is just EXACTLY the opposite of the kind of legislation we DO need - and that is simply the following: Nevada law governing torts should say that "When the bringer of a suit loses in court, he is obligated to pay all legal and other expenses incurred by the person he sued." Most medical suits are unwarranted and add significantly to the cost of medical care. | Mar-06-2013 |
| Against | Do we really want to join CA, NY and DC in their liberal, finger-pointing to fault ways? I think Not. This will only drive drug prices up and out of our reach! | Mar-06-2013 |
| Against | While getting control of prescription drug abuse is very improtant, this bill goes too far and is counterproductive. | Mar-05-2013 |
| Against | I believe that applying this broad bill to pain patient is not in the patient’s best interest and simply creates undue challenges to pain patient. One negative action I see coming from this bill if passed is that providers will cut back on necessary prescriptions for their pain patients. The loss of adequate pain care due to the threat of a patient injuring themselves and being able to take legal action against the provider will decrease the willingness of providers to provide the reasonable care so many patients need for daily living. | Mar-05-2013 |
| Against | The Power of Pain Foundation writing in opposition to proposed Senate Bill 75, which is attempting to establish a cause of action for persons who become addicted to a prescription drug. The Power of Pain Foundation opposes the intent of SB75, because of its broad nature. The SB75 legislation is trying to address the problems of addiction by providing a person the ability to commence a civil action under various theories of liability, including fraud, negligence and products liability, when the patient suffers damages from a product. However, it does not give enough clarity as to what level of severity that “cause of action” might be. There are better ways to monitor abuse and addiction through prescription drug monitoring programs like the one set up in states such as Arizona and North Carolina. The POPF adamantly believes that applying this broad natured bill to pain patient is not in the patient’s best interest and simply creates undue challenges to pain patient. One negative action we see coming from this bill if passed is that providers will cut back on necessary prescriptions for their pain patients. The loss of adequate pain care due to the threat of a patient injuring themselves and being able to take legal action against the provider will decrease the willingness of providers to provide the reasonable care so many patients need for daily living. The POPF provides community based support services that address the immediate need of pain patients. Accordingly, beneficiaries include patients who are economically and socially affected by these invisible diseases. The POPF is opposing SB75 because it will limit access to pain management for chronic pain patients, especially women, minorities and economically disadvantaged patients, whom studies have shown are either disproportionately undertreated, or go untreated for pain. We strongly urge you to not pass SB75 and consider other forms of abuse deterrents such as prescription drug monitoring programs. | Mar-05-2013 |
| Against | Already the price of medicine is so high because of the massive number of bogus lawsuits. | Feb-24-2013 |
| Against | Feb-24-2013 | |
| Against | Feb-22-2013 | |
| Against | This is just a dumbass bill from a dumbass legislator. I am quite sure a person addicted to a RX drug is going to run tell his doc. Also, there are some really easy ways to get off if the patient realizes what is going on. I know because this happened to my daughter. Of course one can't expect a dumbass lawyer to know that. | Feb-22-2013 |
| Against | This will destroy the willingness for doctors and dentists to prescribe pain medication. It could even result in the loss of over-the-counter pain relievers. It is a cynical attempt to generate revenues to lawyers at everyone's expense. | Feb-22-2013 |
| Against | Section 1 paragraph 1a The Manufacturer of a perscription drug has no part in a persons addiction. Drug abuse os an individual choice. Paragraph 1b the words "should have known" make the medical provider clairvoiant or at best a mind reader. Drug addicts lie so anything they say to a medical provider is suspect and that is all the medical provider has to go on. | Feb-22-2013 |
| Against | Have you lost your minds? What ambulance chasing attorney have you been talking to? Pain killers come with a warning that they are addictive. What more do you want? Are you the geese that lay golden eggs for accident/injury lawyers? | Feb-22-2013 |
| For | Perhaps it should be expanded to include those drugged for what are essentially political positions. See Why Anti-Authoritarians are diagnosed as mentally ill by http://www.madinamerica.com/2012/02/why-anti-authoritarians-are-diagnosed-as-mentally-ill/ by Bruce Levine, Ph.D. as well as Peter Breggin, MD, on the Tom Sullivan Show MEDS CAUSE VIOLENCE? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1RLHLxBL20 | Feb-13-2013 |
| Against | This bill is a bad idea. Not only does it imply a lack of any personal responsibility on the part of the person utilizing the medication, but continues to escalate the United States' culture of victimhood. Not every person who is affected negatively by a medication is eligible for remuneration. People are adequately warned at the outset of treatment that the medications they are being given have a significant possibility for addiction if used improperly or for long periods of time. The most significant effect of legislation such as this is a chilling effect on a physician who may choose prescribing a known addicting substance to a patient for whom the medication is the best choice, a patient for whom all other non-addictive treatments have failed. If physicians believes they are subject to litigation for each and every script they write, they will stop treating pain patients or anxiety patients altogether to avoid possible litigation. This will create a worsening illegal drug culture for patients who cannot receive legitimate treatment. | Feb-06-2013 |
| Against | Privacy | Feb-01-2013 |
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