> Dentists gave them to teenagers after pulling their wisdom teeth. Not just one or two days’ worth of pills, but a fortnight or a month’s worth, which, if they did not draw the intended recipient in, frequently sat in the medicine cabinet waiting to be discovered by someone else in the family.
This happened to me!
I got my wisdom teeth removed circa (2005-06), and they gave me a bottle of 50 generic OxyCodone pills. Fifty!
I took maybe 3 or 4 of them over the next couple days, hated the way they made me feel "robotic and distant", and just rode it out on Motrin afterwards. They sat in the cabinet until i ended up selling the rest to a "friend" a few years later.
I hate to think what could have happened if i Really liked them....
This was definitely still happening as late as 2011, I had a friend who spent two weeks basically nodding off because of the amount of opioids they were given after a routine wisdom tooth removal.
A few years ago. I woke up vomiting and in extreme pain. Housemate drove me to 24 hour clinic. I was stuck in waiting room for hour or so. Eventually I got to see doctor. Clinic was not really confidant they knew what was wrong with me and told my housemate to take me to the hospital. I was stuck for another hour or two in waiting room at hospital all the while in extreme pain and vomiting.
I was diagnosed with a kidney stone and I was given a morphine drip. Almost immediately I was out like a light I don't even remember drifting off - scarily strong stuff I went from worst pain of my life to sleeping like a baby.
Same here (2008-2010). That shit made me sick and it only helped for like an hour anyways (0hr: took pill; 1hr: pain relief + nausea; 2-3hr: pain resurgence; 6hr: take another; rinse, repeat.). I stopped taking it after a day. I can appreciate its usefulness for chronic conditions, but damn, it's criminal how many I was prescribed in retrospect.
I generally don't get headaches, not even from drinking too much, but i remember clearly the day after i stopped taking those damn things having The Worst Headache Of My Life.
Looking back, what a blessing that was. Haven't taken another opiate since. Never will.
You're not entirely wrong, but you may also have a similarly limited understanding, having never been completely in thrall to an addiction. I know many recovering addicts who have white-knuckled through recovery-from-surgery (including blunt trauma from a propeller, partial hip replacement, and major oral surgery) in order to preserve their freedom from (what they described as) the intense suffering that failing to continue their recovery-from-addiction would entail.
This happened to me!
I got my wisdom teeth removed circa (2005-06), and they gave me a bottle of 50 generic OxyCodone pills. Fifty!
I took maybe 3 or 4 of them over the next couple days, hated the way they made me feel "robotic and distant", and just rode it out on Motrin afterwards. They sat in the cabinet until i ended up selling the rest to a "friend" a few years later.
I hate to think what could have happened if i Really liked them....