Originally Posted by
elcruxio
I don't know where you get your science, but in Europe where I live opioids are regulated and only available with prescription because of their dangers and addiction potential. I don't know a single person who thinks opioids are safe. Also most drugs have side effects and are dangerous when overdosed. But with regulated drugs you get accurate dosage so the risk of overdose with responsible and informed use is minimized to almost nonexistence.
But just go on ahead and chug on your willow bark tea. I'll rather take an aspirin.
In fairness, I think the poster is referring to the campaign by Purdue Pharma and others to portray the data on oxycontin and other high-potency opioids as showing that the addictive potential was low in patients with significant pain. This was a deliberate misrepresentation and is the subject of criminal prosecution.
I was just out of a neurology residency at the time that this began and there was a big cultural shift in US clinics in favor of treating pain hyper-aggressively with narcotics, pain as the "fifth vital sign," and similar stuff, not all of it bad. In retrospect, quite a bit of this appears to have been commercially driven, but bull**** wasn't science then or now.