Super interesting article if you actually read it

Nearly 92 million U.S. adults, or about 38 percent of the population, took a legitimately prescribed  opioid like OxyContin or Percocet in 2015, according to results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. "The proportion of adults who receive these medications in any year seemed startling to me," said study co-author Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It's an awful lot of people who take these, mostly for medical purposes, but within that a significant percentage end up misusing them," he added. The survey found that 11.5 million people, or nearly 5 percent of the population, misused prescription opioids they'd obtained through illicit means.

Many people receive opioids they don't need and pass them on to relatives who aren't getting the treatment they need for chronic pain, the researchers noted.

Of those who misused prescription opioids, more than 50 percent got the medications as hand-me-downs from family or friends. Overall, nearly 60 percent of misuse involved taking opioids without a prescription

Two-thirds of those who misused opioids said they were motivated by relief from physical pain, while only one in 10 said they misused painkillers to relax or get high, the survey reports.

The broken system of prescribing opioids stretches back at least a decade, and has its roots in the belief that pain should be considered a "fifth vital sign" just as important as blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate and level of oxygen saturation, said Dr. Jack Ende, president of the American College of Physicians. "If patients were not totally rid of their pain, that implied the physician was not doing his or her job or really didn't care," Ende said. "That movement went way beyond proper medical care, so much so that there was a lot of overprescription of opioids for noncancer pain."

Ende pointed out that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is key to sorting out imbalances in opioid prescription.

People with health insurance can be properly diagnosed and covered for nondrug pain treatments -- like physical therapy -- "rather than scrounge for opioids," Ende said.

That’s not the whole thing, just some neat bits.