[nonbel]

I have a friend who had brain surgeries as a child and then again a few years ago. He said even though he weighed 2-4x more for the recent surgery they gave him half the morphine dose he got when younger. Apparently that dose was only enough make his feet itchy without sufficient pain relief, but they said they couldn't give him any more for whatever reason (legal, hospital policy, etc).

If that story generalizes it may be that somehow outpatients are getting too much painkillers while inpatients are not getting enough. The latter group is, of course, much less likely to get addicted.