It’s estimated that 8–12 % of people prescribed opioids will become addicted. For the other ~ 90%, long-term use of opioids as directed for chronic pain comes with fewer side effects than long-term use of Tylenol and NSAIDS.

People with a propensity to addiction, though, cannot use a substance “as directed” because their brains get hijacked. Overdoses happen to people who become addicted; therefore, they shouldn’t be prescribed to folks with a propensity to addiction — but the medical industry isn’t good at assessing that propensity.

While opioid overdose deaths are tragic (my family knows that too well), the current death toll does not compare with the number of deaths caused by alcohol and tobacco. Smoking causes between 400,000 to 500,000 deaths in America per year.

For a doctor to say he’d rather his daughter take up smoking cigarettes (almost universally addictive) than fill a pain killer prescription makes a nice conclusion, but it’s an ill-informed and dangerous conclusion.