Complex? Sure.
Elegant? Iād say moreā¦ moist
This is definitely true science news.
Sudafed works. The OTC substitute doesnāt. Twenty years later we get told what everyone knew.
Last time I was in the US, I went to CVS to buy some real Sudafed. They made me go to the pharmacy, despite no prescription being needed, wouldnāt sell me as much as I wanted, insisted on scanning (not just seeing) my ID, and were generally assholes about it. (Fair enough, I was an asshole right back; I showed them my Belgian drivers licence and my EU passport just to fuck with them, even though I have US ID.)
As I was walking back to my car, some dude in the parking lot came up to me and offered to sell me meth (and presumably anything else in his pharmacopeia.)
And just try getting Vicodin with a prescription nowadays. You have to show up at the doctorās to get a written prescription. None of this calling it in business. Then you have to present the script to the drugstore, and pick it up in person ā no mail-order pharmacy allowed. And the amount you can get at one time is limited. I use it rarely, but it was helpful when I had severe back pain a while back. I canāt use any kind of NSAID because of IBD, and sometimes tylenol is simply not strong enough.
Thank you, Sackler family, you bastards. You deliberately got millions addicted (and many of them dead) just to make money, and didnāt get nearly enough punishment for it. I wish the government could have confiscated the hundreds of billions they have secreted away.
Iām in New Jersey, and here they do allow opioid prescriptions to be called in, although refills are not allowed and you have to see the doctor, or a nurse practitioner who works with said doctor, to get another script. But they can send it to the pharmacy electronically. And they are not allowed to prescribe more than a 30 day supply, so it means a monthly doctor visit. You also have to bring in your pill bottle so they can count what, if anything, you have left, and I think every 3 months, they have to do a urine test.
Mesalamine?
Fist bump, dude!
Iām on tons of that every day, just to help keep the IBD under control.
Shouldāve just bought your sudafed from the meth dealer. Much less hassle that way.
Ah, I am of mixed feeling about this one. You may not know it, but I was pretty seriously addicted to opiates for a year thanks to the governmentās stupid then-policy that wounded warriors should not have to feel pain, followed by the VA just writing scrips to get patients out of their office quickly. The USian drug policy was made far worse in that there is literally no organized plan to get people off prescribed opiates and/or long term chronic pain management in the US other than handing out more pills or forcing them to go cold turkey. And the lack of centralized data makes it easy to pill-shop. I donāt really blame the Sacklers-- demonizing them is easy, and yes, they made a ton of money off opiates, but it was undiscriminated prescribing, pill mills, and poor data management that did the damage.
I am probably about to have a hip replacement to go with my older knee replacement and my painkiller of choice is Tramadol. We donāt have a USian War On Some Drugs here, so getting it is not a huge problem, but it is carefully controlled and centralized and single-payor healthcare makes it pretty difficult to get more than you need. And dependency, if it occurs, is managed as the illness that it is.
UC. I feel your painā¦.literally.
This seems legit, and very promising. Stage I safety trials already completed with celiac patients:
The US is so incredibly prehistoric about all those things. I have mixed feelings too. Itās not one companyās fault, but our entire system. I feel sorry for anyone dealing with chronic pain. My pain problems are minor in comparison.
Good luck with the hip replacement!
For me, this is the worst option, I will take the pain before I take this garbage. It gives me all the shitty side effects of an opioid but none of the 4-hours of dreamless sleep where I canāt feel pain, but I wake up tired. Ibuprofen and/or CBD; everything else sucks or does nothing helpful. 
If you can handle bone pain, real bone pain, where a surgeon has sawed the end off and dug the marrow out of a mostly-functional femur, without drugs, I applaud you-- youāre tougher than I am. And Iām pretty tough. If I could take opiates, Iād be asking for fentanyl.
all the shitty side effects of an opioid but none of the 4-hours of dreamless sleep
Iāve very rarely been in a situation of needing anything stronger than ibuprofen, and grew up with military hospitals pretty much recommending it for anything, so I can see it being a first choice.
At one point, however, I was prescribed something much stronger after some dental workā¦ on top of the warnings of not misusing, etc, I was very strongly warned that it would cause drowsiness, and not to even look at heavy machinery after taking it. Then it turned out that it had the reverse effect for me, once Iād taken it I could not fall asleep to save my life for the next 8+ hours. Wish I remembered which one it was, Iāll never know to avoid it if Iām ever in a situation with a lot of pain againā¦
Growing up, my mom always gave me Tylenol for anything/everything. It has zero effect on me as an adult. I donāt know if I just developed a tolerance or if it was never effective. Ibuprofen is close to the same. My wife insists that I should take it because it works so well for her, but I donāt seem to get anything out of it. Aspirin (particularly in the form of BC or Goodyās powders) works better for me. That at least does something. But itās pretty low-key stuff.
For any serious pain nowadays your choices are basically rolling the dice with over-the-counter placebos or black market pain pills from the street nowadays. Thatās not really a good state of things.
But given the options, it seems theyāve decided thatās better than actually properly prescribing and regulating pain meds.
I live in the US, I would be given a 3-day supply of Oxy and a tramadol script for about two weeks after. 
The Oxy I can stretch by doing half-doses (itās plenty for getting to sleep), I doubt Iād fill the tramadol script since it does worse than nothing for me, and thereās a weed store a few blocks from my house that delivers, edibles and smokeables.
Good luck with your hip replacement that youāre not having done in the US, as you will get proper care that wonāt leave you bankrupt and in effectively un-managed pain.