It's very cruel of them to just cut you off your meds like that, especially if you need them for pain. Although we don't have the same type of health system in the US that you have in the UK, we also have lots of people who get cut off of their meds when they can't pay for them or when they have paid into the system all their lives and then they retire and go on Medicare. Medicare doesn't cover everything and you still have to pay large amounts of money out of pocket to get everything you need. I have pain issues myself, though so far I'm lucky enough that I don't usually need opioids to treat them. For right now, I can treat my pain with large amounts of ibuprofen. I'm sure at some point in the future I'm going to need opioids as my pain seems to get worse the more time that passes. I'm sure when I really need the opioids I'm not going to be able to get them because of how they've cracked down on them here in the United States. I always wish that the doctors would be forced to experience the symptoms that their patients are dealing with so they can get some kind of idea of what they're going through. I don't have a very high opinion of doctors in general and I think most of them are a bunch of jerks(and that's the family friendly version of my opinion of them). I've never met a doctor that was really worth anything. They all think they know things about people that they couldn't possibly have any idea about. And of course, whenever their so-called treatments don't work, they always blame it on the patient.
I also agree with you that it always seems to be the losers and the "lowest common denominator" people who get everything.
For example, here in the United States, I can't get a decent cold medicine anymore because they took all of the ingredients out of the medicine that actually made the medicine work properly because meth heads were using it to make meth with. So rather than actually doing something about the meth heads, they're punishing the rest of us that don't use meth by taking away a medicine that used to work for us when we had a cold. Now the only medicines they have are either medicines that don't work, or the medicines that do work they put behind the counter and you have to sign all these papers and get the third degree from the pharmacist and be treated like a criminal before you can get the medicine that works. It's total BS!
And now they're doing the same thing here with opioids. If you're a person who happens to have a condition where you need opioids in order to not be in constant pain, you're treated like a criminal. Meanwhile the people who are actually abusing opioids don't get anything done to them. In fact, there are cities in the US that want to set up so called "clean injection" sites for heroin users so that they won't inject themselves with a bad needle. What the fuck do I care if they inject themselves with a bad needle?! I think if you're out there doing heroin, you probably have some kind of a death wish or something anyway, so who the hell cares if you inject yourself with a bad needle. And of course, my tax dollars are going to be what goes to supply the safe injection sites. I'm telling you the whole world is backwards. All the assholes seem to get everything handed to them, while the rest of us suffer and struggle for everything that we get!

Anyway, I wish you luck in getting some rest.
