Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I want to respond to Susan Krista’s letter to the editor (“Paying the price for the addicts,” Aug. 3 Readers Write). Her letter describing what she and many others are going through struck a chord with me.

I, too, have been taking prescribed Vicodin for arthritic pain for many years. I’ve had toe joints replaced, my spine looks like a corroded piece of pipe, I’ve had one knee joint replaced, and am fighting to avoid having the other knee joint replaced. My fingers are so crooked I can’t give directions anymore.

But more to the point … leave it to the FDA to force doctors to comply with a program that is overwhelmingly detrimental to three-quarters of the patients taking pain meds (one in four people become opioid addicts, according to the CDC). This opioid epidemic is just the latest “war.” I don’t discount the folks who suffer addiction and overdose. But they, not I, choose to put that needle in t...