In addition, what would you tell a patient who literally has 3 vertebrae crunched together, compressing the nerves coming out of his spine causing pain with any prolonged activity that isn't laying flat on his back? When he tells you the only way he's ever been able to get out of bed and go to work is because of his massive daily dose of morphine? He refuses any alternative treatment or surgery (maybe wouldn't survive surgery anyway). Even though he's clearly addicted and is making all the addict excuses, he's got a real reason for pain. He then brings an article from Fox News about a patient who was weaned from opioids and then committed suicide the next day and waggles a suggestive eyebrow at you? What do you say? "Well, we're gonna wean anyway?"

Or how about a patient with sickle cell disease who is in incredible pain all day every day, and will likely only live until 30 or so because of blood clots in their lungs. They come in to the office and demand IV pain meds, because they've been addicted basically since birth because otherwise a pediatrician would have been subjecting a 2 year old to the incredible pain of having his bones slowly die from tiny infarctions. What do you say? "No, opioids are bad?"

This isn't to defend the opioid pharmaceutical company, the terrible studies and people from the 90's that got us here, or say that the state the US is in is okay. All I'm saying is "Doctors bad, they hurt people with opioids for money" is a very narrow view and is only easy to espouse from an armchair.