The problem with studies about pain is that they can’t recreate the kind of pain that someone with chronic pain sustains. I’ve had chronic pain for 42 of my 52 years. I’m a master of mindfulness and distraction out of necessity. I was sent home with a few days of codeine after bone crushing jaw surgery. I know how to handle it so I don’t suffer. Most of us do. But the poppy plant has been used by humans for as long as meditation and the government policies and gatekeepers are the ones causing the suffering today. Fear of those gatekeepers (DEA, Justice Dept, etc.) is stopping doctors for giving pain patients a drug that we endogenous receptors for and have used as a species for longer than history has been recorded. Mindfulness is only one tool. Its one of many that I use. But by far, the poppy is THE most essential tool and until its as easy to get as mindfulness — articles like these are akin to telling people of color to meditate their way out of racism.