the number ONE abused drug in america is?
/drum roll
PAINKILLERS.
thats right kids..move over cocaine,heroin and weed.the real drug of choice is painkillers.
how come we dont see any wars against painkillers?
oh yeah..thats right.
they are considered legal and are manufactured by big pharma,and hey..didnt big pharma tell us oxycontin was not addictive?/winks
and heroin and cocaine are manufactured and distributed by "brown" people.
cant have that now can we?

in all seriousness,painkillers are just that if abused...killers.
i have lost 7 friends over the past two years to oxycontin/xanax overdoses.i have also had 5 people stay at my place to overcome their painkiller addiction in the last year.watching folks i care about go through that nightmare is heart-wrenching,and i would not wish that experience upon my worst enemy.
it is a sad sad commentary when the biggest killer is marginalized while drugs like weed are still demonized.its bizarro logic,and just perpetuates the status quo for corporations leeching off the ills of society.

I like vicodin...it's a subtle pleasant feeling. It's hard to catch the first time around because of how subtle it really is. It's really not worth taking every day, though. Never had a problem with these although, I can see why somebody could get caught up in its thralls. At first it's for a mild high. To feel good...next thing you know you need them to operate. You are a modern day junkie with nowhere to turn but to your dealer for more pills.

I must admit I've never used this type of medicine. For my knee injuries I used, tylonol 3, a muscle relaxant, Ibuprofen and some other anti-inflammatory but the only drug that even felt like it did anything was TORADOL. The relief was almost instant as I went from what I would describe a 9.9 on the pain scale to about a 1 or 2 within 5 minutes. Now, I had it via a needle which works quicker, but there is a pill form.

I believe Toradol is a type of Ketorolac There was no addiction - though admittedly, I don't think I received enough doses to become addicted.

Unfortunately, thanks to quite bad knee problems, I am currently physically dependent on oxycodone (generally held to be about twice as powerful as hydrocodone)... though with a legal prescription.

Though the "doctor" in this video is kind of campy I think this is an important educational video. Though I am in the rare (and hard to achieve) position of being dependent without being psycologically addicted, I can fully appreciate the power these drugs can have over someone and it is clear to me that these are not medications to be fooled around with.

That said, I feel there is often a stigma against people who are legitimately dependent on pain killers. Those of us with chronic pain, with legitimate reasons to be using prescription pain killers, often have to hide our treatment from others so we are not labeled (or viewed) as addicts (in the derogatory sense). It would be excellent if there was a pain killer that was as effective while being non-addictive but unfortunately that isn't the case at the moment.