Z’s Odyssey is a personal story of the struggle to find relief for intractable pain in a medical, legal, and political climate that restricts opioid doses that were once the standard of care. Z’s Odyssey spans the watershed year of 2016 when the Centers for Disease Control invited the members of an anti-opioid lobby to develop the pain guideline for the first time in near secrecy, and have since been opposed by professional organizations representing half a million doctors. State governments quickly implemented them as new laws, which have had a draconian impact on opioid prescribing. How can a patient navigate such a stormy sea when the powerful forces in the government have their own agendas? Politicians aim to placate angry constituents who blame the doctors and even pain patients for the crisis.

The states and municipalities have the agenda of filing lawsuits against *very typo of opioid corporation, professional organization, consultancy, and the leaders of the peel medical community personally. The Drug Enforcement Administration Diversion Control Division obtains half its budget firm asset seizures from any doctor or pharmacy they target for allegations of murder manslaughter, drug trafficking, or Medicaid fraud.