[dcolkitt]

Only 0.19% of opiate-treated chronic pain patients without a prior history develop any form of abuse or addiction[1]. And remember these are chronic-pain patients who take tolerance-escalating doses over years or even decades. Virtually no one develops an opiate addiction from following their medically prescribed treatment regiment.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18489635

[turtlesdown11]

>Virtually no one develops an opiate addiction from following their medically prescribed treatment regiment.

Completely false. You refer to data about a subsection of opioid prescriptions (chronic pain patients), and asserting broad claims that are not accurate.

"In just 10 months, the sixth-largest company in America shipped more than 3 million prescription opioids — nearly 10,000 pills a day on average — to a single pharmacy in a Southern West Virginia town with only 400 residents, according to a congressional report released Wednesday."

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/drug-firm-poured-m...

[dcolkitt]

Illegal diversion in the supply chain does not tell us anything about whether the healthcare system is over-prescribing pain medication.

Let's just take your example. What do you believe is more plausible? That a town of 400 people are collectively prescribed 10,000 pills a day by well-meaning doctors? Or that the pharmacy from your example is a front for organized crime to funnel prescription opiates into the black market?