This has moved to the Senate floor. S 331 now. There are 21 cosponsors on the bill including 6 Democrats. I'm pretty sure this is going to go through and it's going to be disastrous - ThreadSky

drsparklefairy.bsky.social • 23 days ago

This has moved to the Senate floor. S 331 now. There are 21 cosponsors on the bill including 6 Democrats. I'm pretty sure this is going to go through and it's going to be disastrous

Reposted from Dr. Sparklefairy

If fentanyl gets changed to Schedule I like HR 21 is proposing, healthcare will come to a catastrophic screeching halt. I really need someone who isn't just me to be screaming about this. I cannot emphasize how bad it would be. Worse than COVID and avian flu combined.

Comments

brittexkavi.bsky.social•23 days ago

May I ask you a question? Do you know if there’s some sort of financial incentive behind this?

nancykayshapiro.bsky.social•23 days ago

I first learned of fentanyl as a healthcare copywriter when it was available as a slow release patch for serious cancer pain relief. This was years ago; dunno if it’s still dispensed in that form

garnede.bsky.social•22 days ago

They used it on me when I had my appendix removed.

taz1.bsky.social•22 days ago

Dems have lost their dam minds.
None should be voting for one thing with Republicans

killersumobunny.medsky.social•23 days ago

I’m a pediatric emergency department and we use fentanyl every day, safely and for a wide range of reasons. I reached out to my senators, this would be disastrous.

killersumobunny.medsky.social•23 days ago

Oops forgot to put RN* I am not actually an entire emergency department, just an RN who works there ha.

whitewaterlawyer.bsky.social•23 days ago

If James Donald Bowman is allowed to publicly identify as a motorcycle muffler to support "Vance" as a preferred pronoun, you are entirely welcome to either identify as an emergency department or use the "royal we" to describe your workplace.

amaditalks.bsky.social•23 days ago

This is a US Senate bill? What the hell are they thinking? Street fentanyl is already illegal. Making it more illegal isn't going to make it less common.

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Yup, the HALT Fentanyl Act changing the schedule of fentanyl from II to I.

amaditalks.bsky.social•23 days ago

Thank you. These people have lost their minds.

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

It's going to be so, so bad

amaditalks.bsky.social•23 days ago

I called my senators. Looking at the text of the bill looks like they're trying to thread a needle between medicinal fentanyl and "fentanyl related substances" but it's hard to see how that can be legally parsed in any way that doesn't affect medical care.

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Cocaine and methamphetamines are scheduled II substances. If we can see how they have medical use and not fentanyl I give up.

dseitz.bsky.social•23 days ago

They aren't. Dick Durbin literally got up a few days ago to whine we should revoke Section 230 because FENTANYL BAD.

amaditalks.bsky.social•23 days ago

Oh FFS. I am EXHAUSTED of that man.

dseitz.bsky.social•23 days ago

Yet another case study for forcibly retiring politicians.

amaditalks.bsky.social•23 days ago

An even better one for publicly funded campaigns, so that someone doesn't need to have millions in a war chest to primary an incumbent.

concoloris.bsky.social•22 days ago

is pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl scheduled at all? it looks like the current bill text specifically exempts if it's "listed in another schedule"

maggieoutside.bsky.social•23 days ago

What the fucking fuck. As a trauma-surgical ICU nurse this is a disaster. Yesterday alone I had a patient on a fentanyl drip and my other patient was getting PRN pushed all night. SAFELY. Without harm. Fentanyl is one of the most effective pain management tools we have inpatient.

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

The highest dose of fentanyl I've ever seen is currently being received by a 4 yo. They're interactive with the team on rounds and awake. The bag has 10 mg (not a typo) of fentanyl in it

maggieoutside.bsky.social•23 days ago

Exactly!!!! In controlled settings, fentanyl (that’s also made in a regulated medical medication facility) is safe and effective for patients!!!!!!!! Ugh

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Call your senators! I sobbed to Liz Warren and Ed Markey this morning lol

maggieoutside.bsky.social•23 days ago

Ring ring Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff is that you?????

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Markey, Warren and Presley are programmed in my phone

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

The language of the bill gives 6 months to dispose of fentanyl. It also goes after the analogues of fentanyl as well. Please call your senators, especially if you work in healthcare, to get rid of this bill. We don't have anything to replace fentanyl and this will be bad.

mariaq.bsky.social•23 days ago

https://resist.bot/petitions/PDWCFF

Not the best letter I’ve ever written but hopefully it does the job.

Vote NO on S 331 - HALT Fentanyl Act.

Thank you Dr. Sparklefairy for alerting us to this issue!! ❤️‍🔥

vought.bsky.social•23 days ago

Can you help me understand why fentanyl is either much better or better indicated than something like Dilaudid? Are there no other medications that produce the same effects as fentanyl even in larger quantities?

excanberran.bsky.social•22 days ago

Fentanyl and its related drugs like remifentanil have much more rapid onset and offset than something like hydromorphone (“Dilaudid”), which means they’re great for anaesthetic. Often an infusion is run to keep people asleep…

excanberran.bsky.social•22 days ago

… the rapid offset makes it easy and safe to wake people up and then remove breathing devices. Other opioids are slower and hence less safe.

Fentanyl also has a lot less nausea than alternatives like morphine in clinical practice, and can be given in more ways, eg. nasal spray for kids…

excanberran.bsky.social•22 days ago

I haven’t seen an alternative for the nasal spray, which is safe and easy for kids in pain and procedures, without needing to use a needle which would cause more distress.

In medical use, fentanyl and its analogues are safe and effective, and there isn’t another opioid with the same properties

excanberran.bsky.social•22 days ago

I use it all the time at work. For example, for rapid onset pain relief while slower-onset drugs kick in; the fentanyl will have worn off by the time the slower drugs (oxycodone, hydromorphone/“Dilaudid”) kick in, making it safe. And I have got it all over my hands with no effects whatsoever (oops)

squirrelygirl.bsky.social•23 days ago

What are they proposing to use in its place?

spfhockeyfan.bsky.social•23 days ago

Nothing. Suffering builds character!

vjpsyverson.bsky.social•23 days ago

thoughts and prayers, sounds like

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

They aren't

squirrelygirl.bsky.social•23 days ago

No morphine? Wtf?

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Morphine works for pain but fentanyl is used for so many other things that there isn't a substitute in medicine. We don't have something to use in its place.

squirrelygirl.bsky.social•23 days ago

Ah, right. Omg, what a disaster.

kabdib.bsky.social•23 days ago

my 93yo father is on a fentanyl patch for chronic pain

i was expecting them to politicize and try to eliminate the drug

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

If you've had surgery, you've most likely had fentanyl. If you've had a baby and got an epidural, good chance there was fentanyl. Intubated? Fentanyl. We use it in all ages too. From neonates to the elderly.

nikkipotnick.bsky.social•22 days ago

Fentanyl is also used in abortion care

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

There's also the point that cocaine and methamphetamines are Schedule II medications. This is what I mean that there are no morally bad drugs (there are bad drugs but I digress)

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Shaking, crying, throwing up over fentanyl wasn't on my 2025 bingo card but here we are

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

This is worse than pretty much anything else I could really think of happening in healthcare.

panmalazan.bsky.social•23 days ago

this is categorically bonkers. called both my senators

drsparklefairy.bsky.social•23 days ago

We're up to 29 cosponsors. I am begging you to please call your Senators, please call anyone and everyone in government about it. Surgery, elective or emergency, will NOT happen without fentanyl. At least not ethically

sophygurl.bsky.social•22 days ago

*cries in chronic pain patient whose meds are already so restricted and now there's shortages making it even worse*

untonuggan.bsky.social•23 days ago

Wrote a quick resistbot petition, feel free to rework the language as a call script!

Or text SIGN PUIFII to 50409, or share: https://resist.bot/petitions/PUIFII

sophygurl.bsky.social•22 days ago

this pulled up something about the data act for me

realbrucy.bsky.social•23 days ago

Bill Cassidy is the poster child for You Of All People Should Know Better

antijen.bsky.social•23 days ago

Called my senators. Had no idea this was even happening. Thanks.

theodoric.bsky.social•23 days ago

Called.

mrnagrom.bsky.social•22 days ago

well that’s stupid.

differentmatt.bsky.social•23 days ago

Years of blather about how China and Mexico and [checks notes] Canada were conspiring to flood our streets with this deadly drug, but I assume they'll stop doing that once we ban it for legitimate medical use.

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