Source: COURIER
Excerpt:
By Michael Burnell, Jr.
Most politicians love to call themselves champions for veterans. You’ll see the photo ops, speeches about sacrifice, and endless talk about “America’s heroes.”
Every Veterans Day, elected officials will forcefully highlight how we need to put veterans first.
The truth, as they say, is nothing like the brochure. Far from putting veterans first, the federal government has long been one of our biggest obstacles. Veterans are losing access to care, income, and dignity because of deliberate decisions made by government agencies.
One of the government’s most damaging failures is how it has handled, or rather not handled, chronic pain. Chronic pain defines daily life for millions of veterans. Instead of confronting it with research, compassion, and better care, federal agencies have chosen neglect and punishment, cutting off treatments and blocking promising alternatives.
I live that reality every day. I’m a 100% permanently and totally disabled Air Force veteran. I wake up every day in pain that is sometimes so severe, it takes hours to move normally. I’m unfortunately in good company. Nearly two-thirds of American veterans live with chronic pain. One in ten characterize the pain as “severe.” This is just the sort of thing that happens when your job often involves serious injuries on top of the daily wear and tear on your body.
For decades, the military tried to address chronic pain by handing out opioid prescriptions. Millions of us got addicted to these pills. When the VA then decided to cut down on prescriptions, we were cut off overnight with no transition plan and no safe alternative.
With few places to run to alleviate our constant pain, many veterans have turned to a host of other solutions, most of which we’ve had to find on our own. Some use medical marijuana. Others use acupuncture, yoga, and even therapy based around music. Most have cobbled together a combination of approaches. Sometimes they even work.
In the last two years, a lot of us added 7-OH products to that combination. 7-OH is a compound that occurs naturally in kratom. It interacts with the same receptors as opioids, but produces far less respiratory depression. That means it offers relief without the same risk of overdose. For many of us, it’s the difference between functioning and collapsing.
It would have been responsible to listen to veterans, fund research on 7-OH, and regulate it. Last summer, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., decided to intervene: but instead of regulating 7-OH and making it easier to access for people who need it, he moved to criminalize it before understanding it. The FDA and HHS, based on almost no data, announced they were recommending that the DEA classify 7-OH as a controlled substance. It was a staggering betrayal.
Sadly, the government’s long neglect of chronic pain is just one part of a broader pattern of overlooking the needs of the people who served once we’re off the front lines. After all, veterans are still fighting to receive the benefits they’re owed for Agent Orange exposure in the Vietnam War because Washington spent years denying any connection between that toxin and the illnesses it caused. It took decades for the military to recognize PTSD as a genuine condition. And tens of thousands of veterans remain homeless.
And now, after putting us through a government shutdown that threatened core services for over a month, eight Senate Democrats voted to end it without winning anything tangible for our fellow citizens. Veterans were willing and prepared to make yet another sacrifice for the sake of getting guarantees of healthcare for our fellow Americans who needed it.
Around 30,000 VA employees were furloughed. More than 100,000 participants in the Veteran Readiness and Employment program stopped receiving counseling or case management, and 16,000 separating service members missed the briefings that prepared them for life after active duty. Nearly a million veterans enrolled in VA education programs couldn’t reach the call centers they depend on. Even burials at national cemeteries were being delayed because of staffing shortages.
But the eight Senate Democrats who defected from their party made the loss we suffered over the last month meaningless. Presumably, they were nervous about missing Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s an utter slap in the face. But a typical one.
If you’ve ever thanked a veteran, this is the moment to mean it. Don’t just post a flag or say the words. Demand better. Call the senators who stopped fighting for Americans on November 9. Tell them that veterans were willing to give up our benefits and services to get healthcare for our fellow citizens, but politicians weren’t willing to do their part and hold the line.
And tell them to commit to permanent solutions so that veterans services can’t be held hostage again. Restore the programs that keep veterans fed and housed. Reverse the plan to criminalize 7-OH and instead regulate it with science-based standards, giving veterans safer options to manage pain. And put veterans with lived experience at the table.
Supporting veterans isn’t about ceremony or slogans. It’s about showing up for the people who’ve already sacrificed enough. That’s what real patriotism looks like.
Michael Burnell, Jr. is a U.S. Air Force veteran originally from East Los Angeles and now living in Westcliffe, Colorado. He served from 1997 to 2003 as a Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) specialist. Michael is permanently and totally disabled according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.