The Innocent Victims of America's Painkiller Panic
However, the opioid issue looks very different when you examine the numbers closely. For one, the rates of Americans addicted to OxyContin, Vicodin, percocet, fentanyl and other products in our synthetic narcotic medicine cabinet are not rising. In fact, they have been steady at 0.8% since 2002, according to the government's own statistics.
Moreover, fewer than 1% of people over 30 (without a prior history of serious drug problems) become an addict while taking opioids; for chronic pain patients who are not screened for a history of previous drug problems, the addiction rate is 3.27%. That means, of course, that more than 96% do not become addicted.
Yet these statistics usually go unmentioned in media accounts because they do not confirm the preferred panic narrative. Also left out is the fact that around 80% of Oxy addicts (a) did not obtain the drug via legitimate prescription for pain and/or (b) had a prior experience of rehab. Their contact with the medical system—if any—was not what caused their addictions.
So, the first thing the public really needs to know about what doctors call “iatrogenic addiction” is that it is extremely rare. If you’ve made it out of your 20s without becoming an addict, the chances that you will get hooked on pain treatment are miniscule—and even young people are not at high risk in most medical settings.
Nonetheless, the media continue to love them some “innocent victims”—and the real story of not-so-blameless drug users who move from heavy drinking, cocaine use and marijuana smoking to prescription drug abuse is just not as compelling. This, sadly, only contributes to the delusion that anyone who is treated for chronic pain with opioids is at risk for drowning in the—gasp!—ubiquitous riptide of addiction.
http://www.thefix.com/content/fake-prescription-painkiller-epidemic9028?page=all
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I've been taking hydrocodone for 8 years or longer now and I don't abuse them. I don't like the way they make me feel so there is no way that I would take more than they're prescribed, most times I take less. If I forget to take one for about 12 hours I know it and if I was to quit taking them I'd have to wean myself off as my body has gotten used to them and I'd have to taper off. The other meds I've tried that is used for my condition leaves me in a trance, agitated, super anxious or just like I'm living in a fog. With the hydrocodone I go about my business with out being impaired at all. I was telling my brothers a while back that I take pain meds every day and have been for years and they were amazed that they couldn't tell, had no idea that I was. Grant you when I first started taking them they gave me a high kinda like a couple beer buzz but that didn't last long. The pain tells me when to take them most times but I feel better when I take them on a regular basis and try to do it that way but sometimes I forget.
These people who take a hand full at a time or great numbers a day definitely have a problem but people like me they're not a problem at all. I'd like to not take them but I also like to do things that pain would keep me from being able to do so I plow on with my regimen of pill taking. Smoking pot works for the pain but I can't do that any more cause of several reasons one being its illegal and another is my lungs. I gave it up and never looked back.
I used to be an old pot head and drank scnapps like a fish but don't do either anymore. The scnapps has been gone something like 6 or 7 years now. I drink a beer once in a while but a 6 pack will last me for weeks so its not a problem either. Never was much of a beer drinker anyway. The reason I'm saying this is to show that everyone who used to be addicted to something doesn't necessarily have a problem with the pain meds. I used to be a drinker and I don't have a problem with the meds, so there media get off our ass 
