I'm sure it an be.  I only had to take it for a relatively short time
when I've needed it.  I didn't enjoy it, but it was useful.  I really
liked the Demerol shots though!  

I'd expect someone's father to have more than a little trouble though
finding a drug dealer -- not that it's hard to find drugs in any
metropolitan area, but getting a set-up including a spike and making a
cooker is not a trivial matter.  It's probably  easier just to get a
prescription for OxyContin.

Regards and Purrs,
O J

Luckily, I've avoided that.  I can see how it happens, though.

I don't think you *can* take morphine for a long time.  It kills you.  When
my aunt was dying of cancer they asked her husband about increasing her
morphine.  They told him it would kill her sooner rather than later.
She was in a lot of pain, so he chose more morphine for her, knowing it
would accelerate her death.  As far as I'm concerned that was a brave
decision.

Tweed

It's quite rare, actually, that people who are properly given doses of
morphine (or other opioids) for pain become psychologically addicted;
the physiological addiction is probably not as bad as nicotine.

The problem is that many physicians and care facilities don't administer
them properly. One of the key concepts is not to get the patient craving
the next injection -- that means when moderate to severe pain is
reasonably expected, the drug MUST be given at regular intervals -- not
"as needed", when the patient is already in trouble.

Another technique that helps in acute care is patient-controlled
analgesia: a relatively low dose continuous IV, with a button that the
patient can press to get a booster dose. There is a lockout to avoid
overdoses.  When the patient feels in control, as they do with the
optional dose, they tend to take LESS drug than if they are purely
dependent on the staff.

Chronic and acute pain are physiologically different. It can be totally
appropriate to prescribe opioids indefinitely for a chronic condition,
as long as it is done skillfully and for an appropriate condition.
Indeed, one non-intuitive thing is that as long as chronic pain is
present, if the dose is increased at a safe rate, there really is no
upper limit to the dose. Just as one example, I know of a patient with
severe sickle-cell disease, who, prior to entering a specialized pain
management program, spent her days bedridden, in agony.  She had a pump
inserted into her body that pumps morphine continuously into her spinal
fluid, and she has gone back to challenging engineering work, raising a
family, and generally leading a normal life. If a person who was not
taking regular morphine got her one-hour dose in a vein (which is much
less efficient than the spine), they'd be dead before the needle was
withdrawn.

After I had my knee replacements I was put on morphine, when the physio
came round to talk to me he asked my Daughter,' is your Mother always like
this ' she said ' NO! she's very alert, its the drugs, I must have sounded
very strange to her too, cause she said I was saying the strangest things.
                 Jean.P.

"Howard Berkowitz" <hcb@gettcomm.com> wrote in message
news:hcb-70717C.20332815012005@news-> That's actually a fair description of
the major effect. Pain, contrary

Thanks for all your posts on this Howard - very interesting

Susan M
otis and chester

When a patient goes to the ER with chest pain, they get "MONA" therapy--which
is Morphine, Oxygen, Nitroglycerin & Aspirin. So I've had it a few times. I
like it. A lot. Probably too much. It's probably a good thing they don't sell
the stuff over the counter.