And it's still the correct argument. One person abusing something isn't a reason to harm another. I really do feel for people that are dealing with opioid addic

And it's still the correct argument. One person abusing something isn't a reason to harm another. I really do feel for people that are dealing with opioid addiction issues. It's been something that's hit close to me as well. But the ridiculous levels of interference in proper medical treatment is a strong driver of the very addition problems its attempting to solve. Getting proper pain management requires going to "pain specialists" which may or may not be pill mills since their entire business is now built on pain management rather than general medical care. Getting your medications is heavily restricted and complicated. You can't fill a script for more than a month. You can't fill more than 2-3 days before the date on the script. You can't stock up for a trip, and you can't even start the process of trying to get it early in a shortage situation. The fear of DEA / government means your normal providers won't touch it, and it means if you're dealing with a bad provider (say you wound up at a pill mill and you're trying to get out) other providers won't want to take you on. It means if you've been mis-managed, rather than trying to help you wean down, you're more likely to have a new provider cut you off cold turkey and then treat you as an addict when your withdrawl symptoms kick in. An uncomfortable number of addicts have the same basic history, of being put on pain meds for some reason or another and being cut off cold turkey by some other provider without consideration for their current dependency levels or their actual pain needs. And that doesn't even begin to get into how impossible it becomes to get proper help if you are an addict. Addiction is an awful thing, and it's an issue that needs to be dealt with. Dealing with it by making it harder for non-addicts and addicts alike to get the help they need is not the answer.