Politicians, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, patients, attorneys, law enforcement, and the common citizen have all weighed in on the public health emergency we know as the opioid crisis. Yet one demographic, with significant input into this issue, has received little or no mention in the discourse of chronic pain patients and opioids. That would be the 65 million and growing population of family caregivers.

Serving as a caregiver for my wife for more than 30 years, I’ve handled enough opioids that their street value easily runs into the millions. A car accident in college left her severely disabled with massive orthopedic trauma, eventually costing her both legs. The number of major surgeries she’s endured has soared to at least 78 and she’s undergone twice that number in smaller procedures such as nerve blocks, infusions, etc.