> When they looked at all recipients, the abuse/addiction rate was 3.27%. The 3% figure includes includes those patients with a pre-existing history of addicti

> When they looked at all recipients, the abuse/addiction rate was 3.27%. The 3% figure includes includes those patients with a pre-existing history of addiction/abuse. Now it's debatable whether previous addicts should get opiates for chronic pain conditions, it's irrelevant to the specific question of opiate prescriptions create new addictions. Because by definitions those with a history already had a pre-existing addiction. Regardless 3% is still an extraordinarily low percent for chronic pain patients treated for years at a time. For reference 3% is less than or on par with the abuse/addiction rate of long-term prescribed ADHD medication[1]. > In other words, 20% were clearly diverting to non-prescribed users, and/or already supplementing their opioids. Your characterization of the findings are mis-leading. Opiates frequently metabolize to another active opioid inside the body. Morphine commonly metabolizes to hydromorphone[2]. Codeine metabolizes to morphine[3]. Oxycodone metabolizes to oxymorphone[4]. Hydrocodone metabolizes to hydromorphone[4]. Furthermore many of these metabolic pathways are only just recently discovered (like morphine to hydromorphone). The reality is that our current understanding and technology is not advanced enough to tell from urine toxicology which specific opiates were consumed and which are the byproducts of metabolism. [1]https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-mo... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16620524 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16620524 [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK100662/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK100662/ [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704133/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704133/