drivers drive on pain meds

Hello,
I am wanti now to start driving trucks and I have been on pain meds on and off since 2003 from a truck running into me at a stop light. So I am wondering how do I go about with the DOT physical etc. my script is legal and have been seeing this same doc since 2008, I am willing to suffer in pain in order to drive but it would be great if I’m able to do it pain free. Could you possibly give me some input on your experience and how do I go about with the DOT physical and getting my CDL. Thank you so much for your service. My father was a veteran as well.

Sincerely Samantha

 

I agree with Dave, I’m a vet as well, shoulders are destroyed.
The only thing I take is aleve and sometimes to sleep Valium. Which I have a prescription for.
It is also listed on my long form.
Per regs, I cannot drive for a minimum of 8 hours once I take the pill.

Btw, thanks for your service Dave.

 

Nope. Nothing.

As of Jan 1 Opoids are tested.

If you are that bad off, you are not going to be driving too long without medicine. That fits the definition of disability.

There may be work possible to fix that back to get going again. But possible. More often than not that kind of work screws it up. I am a pain patient who has a bad spine in more ways than one. I cannot even get a job at a dollar store without hot testing a urine screen. Its not possible. Ive been on that for years.

My current doctor wants to burn the nerves back there that transmit pain. Then he says it's only good for 8 months. I say hell no. I'll take the ow like I always have. However I am due for a research MRI that will make a pretty picture showing exactly what is going on with me in particular. Such a scan is very very expensive to me. But they intend to make it gratis. The goal is to find out once and for all what is matta back there they already know of several conditions by previous scans. But this one will get into places no one has done yet to this day.

For you as a current CDL driver, you CANNOT have that in your system, the pain medicines, That is minimum DUI. Don't think they wont. It will fail you roadside with eye test vs pen light (Big medical name for it slips me at the moment) and then if you cannot do the exercises and various mental tasks asked of you or even follow the deliberately investivating chatter of the policeman testing you with words... you will be arrest for DUI.

No doctor will sign you able to drive a 18 wheeler now with pain meds. They wont dare.

So. If you want to drive. Stop it. The medicine. If it hurts too much stop driving them big trucks. It's your choice. It's not really a choice. Espeically when you consider that a hot drug test will pretty much force you into a expensive SAP and essentially knock you off the road.

I hate to be difficult. You will have medicine. Or you will have the trucking without the medicine. If you cannot do the work without hurting too much then you are disabled. Maybe they fix your spine. Or screw it up even more. We only get one spine in life. Once that's gone forget it.

I don't want to hear from anyone thinking that pain medicine is a way to get high. it's not. It is literally a way to fight pain to where you can function normally in life. For some people it's a end of life situation if the medicines go away for one reason or another. There is at least one vet in Little Rock who has lost his medicine since the vietnam war as of April this year on our THV 11 some weeks ago. When the medicine runs out on him, he intends to take himself out of the life. (That opens a can of worms but.. it is what it is..) The VA is intent on cutting off pain medicine for so many who cannot live without it.

But that is neither here or there. The bottom line is this. As of Jan this year, Pain Medicine and CDL driving a big truck is illegal. You cannot have that in your system and drive a car either. Its still a DUI arrest should you get pulled over. It's easy for the current war on pain medicines hyped by the authorities because of the so called actions by people who have been cut off from medicine through a variety of reasons. Then they go buy illegal drugs which are laced with fentanyal etc and OD and die. Some simply purchase mountains of immodium and then liver failure kills them. Immodium is about to be pulled from the market for that reason. (It contains a old schedule 5 narcotic from the late 70's which is no longer a schedule drug. However its effect on your gut causing it to go to sleep and stop your travel runs to the toilet making a mess is the same result as that with opoid today) People use it also to fight withdrawal symptoms as well.

There is so much more going on but essentially we are going to be at a point where if you require this kind of medicine, you will not be part of society. And society might not be able to get anything that alters the mind across the blood brain barrier in way of medicine outside of a trauma hospital. It's gotten grotesque these last few years as the controls tighten.

I do not choose to take these medicines or have a bad spine among other things but it is for me the price of a life time of rough trucking. I'll do it again if I was 21 and looking to get to work. Back on the road I go.

Anyway there is more but I think I beat this horse enough for one day. If you drive, dont take a #### thing. Its not worth it. If you cannot drive because the ow is too bad, then you are not going to be working anymore. To the SSA office you go. Keep in mind it will be about a year to get approved and about two to secure medicare insurance. All of which is pending to fail at 2034 or so. Medicaid is already failing. When pain patients that old try to get pain medicine through medicaid, they cannot get more than 90 per 30 days if they can get em at all.

 

It says use care when operating machinery etc. Not never drive a vehicle again. Huhuhuhu. You may get a DUI if some over zealous cop pulls you over and decides to do a urinalysis but if that's all you have in your system, your prescribed medication, I doubt if it would hold up in court.as far as cmv goes,you're supposed to provide a list of medication you take when you fill out your application. If you list it and are hired you should be good to go. I don't think dot prohibits drivers from taking any medication as prescribed. They can determine this by counting your meds.I doubt if he's the only driver to ever be prescribed vicodin,which is actually a mild pain medicine as far as it goes. Morphine or hydromorphone may be another story but three or even four,which is the most drs will usually prescribe,vicodins a day never hurt anybody. Its people who abuse them or are simply pain med illiterate that give even mild pain relievers like vicodin a bad name. Vicodin is just a tick above Tylenol for those who don't know. A person who has never taken one should be able to take a 5 mg.and drive a truck with no problem. Someone who has taken them for years should be able to take a 10 mg and do the same. Its as bad as reefer madness huhuhuhu. That was a serious film.80 years ago. Now it's a complete joke because people know better. Take your medicine and be careful and don't worry about it. If it makes you feel better keep some clean pee in the fridge or cooler it'll keep for weeks. I did it for years when I drove otr.smoking weed and taking three 40 mg methadone wafers a day. I never had an accident and the couple of times I came up for a random I had plenty of time to throw it on the dash with the defrost on and warm it up, give them my sample and go about my business. Since I have my own truck I do one every six months for chitz and giggles in case dot ever wants to audit my records which they never have. I took oxymorphone,opana,for years now I take two or three 8 mg subutex per day which is supposed to be to get off the opana and opioids in general. It does what its supposed to do only thing is I get higher off the subutex than I did the opana. Don't know what their logic was there.bottom line is do what you gotta do and don't lose sleep over. Just cover your ### and be careful. Thank you for your service. If it were up to me service members wouldn't have to work unless they wanted to. You've done enough already. The least we could do is give you a decent house paid for and a new reasonably priced vehicle every few years and a check to go with it.but then we may have to cut funding to Iran or something and they have that. They would prefer to have you sweating about losing your job over a pain pill.do what you gotta do just be smart about it and don't kill anybody in a big truck. That's just what the pro suffering crowd wants.more negative statistics. They never talk about the people who are contributing productive members of society and not bed ridden because of pain meds.let's see those stats!

 

Here is some info. for you..according to this you cannot unless you have a docs approval and a prescription. If you were to get into an accident and these drugs show your driving was impaired due to the meds, your going to be in a world of #### (DUI) etc. Like another poster said, he takes them at night..As we all know, these drugs leave most people hung over the next day..to me a doc.prescribing these meds is taking a real chance knowing the patient is driving a cmv..I wouldn't risk it. Get off of them and stick with Alleve or something similiar. I have sciatica that flares up at times and see a chiropractor take alleve, ibuprofen, even pamprin as a muscle relaxant sometimes..narcotic.pain meds.= trouble eventually

www.fmcsa.dot.gov/faq/what-medications-disqualify-cmv-driver

 

How long did you take the narcotic pain killers for smokey?

 

I
I have had them on and off for years, dentist etc. Been 3or 4 years since I have been prescribed any none since driving cmv.

 

Well if you take the same one for years then "as we all know" you become IMMUNE to the narcotic effects and dont wake up with a hangover the next day.its just like taking aleve as far as being impaired at that point. I'm going to make a movie called pain pill madness, like reefer madness only with vicodin. We all know what a joke the first one turned out to be huhuhuhu. But you're correct.the world would be nice if there were no pain or suffering and therefore no need for pain meds.and that place does exist. Its called heaven. But for the people here in the real world with chronic pain that limits your ability to live a normal life there is pain medication. Take away pain meds and the number of Americans receiving disability will probably triple at least as well as the poverty rate and if that were to happen the economy would crash and this will be a third world country. But there won't be anyone taking pain meds!! Woo boo!!!

 

And for someone to try to equate their kid who wasn't prescribed pain meds to a veteran who was injured fighting for your freedom and IS prescribed them as a result is ludicrous. Bad bad comparison. Please try again.

 

This is true..the problem with immunity to these pain killers is yes, you don t feel the effect as much, the problem is you need more to feel the effect. Whereas a year ago you only need one pill to feel it's effects, 6 months later you need 6 pills to feel what you did back then . On a drug test the amount of medicine will show a much higher use of the drug, needing more to feel the effects makes it much worse. These things build up in your system and although you don't know it your respiratory cardiovascular etc system does..it shuts down and that's all she wrote. I had a friend and co worker that went this route and he is no longer with us.

They say marijuana is a gateway drug..i think it is just the opposite and can be an exitway from opioids...

 

You are going to be a difficult one I can tell.

Put a drug into a person for pain. Take the drug away after years. That person will go into withdrawal. Sometimes that withdrawal will push BP to stroke levels, no where near legal for DOT Medical card among other problems. This will last 5 to 10 days for some of the stronger medicines.

It will take a certain amount of hours to get into this withdrawal.

Now. You came on here asking about pain medicine and driving. We have told you and some have posted links.

Key word Narcotic. Vicodin (Hydrocodone with tynenol etc) is a narcotic. Granted the MME vs Morphine is not strong but still a narcotic. It is a schedule two medicine. Under the DEA pertaining to the DOT regulation linked above it's a DQ medicine.

What medications disqualify a CMV driver?

Second. You will need a prescribe certification that a driver may drive a semi truck while on this prescription. YOU WILL NOT see a medical examine accept those results if that is not going to happen.

What medications disqualify a CMV driver?

And finally the DOT does test for Hydrocodone among several other medicines.

DOT to Add Four Opioids for Transportation Worker Drug Testing

I suggest you want to consider being less... aggressive in your reaction. We are trying to teach you something here. It's not good for you or anyone to see difficulty or combativeness in posts.