As european, may i ask from americans - what pains do you have so that doctors so easily prescribe hard painkillers? When taking into account that one can sue doctors easily in US, why they even dare?
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13172/relieving-pain-in-america-a...
tl;dr - "Chronic pain conditions affect at least 116 million U.S. adults at a cost of $560-635 billion annually in direct medical treatment costs and lost productivity. [...] [It] is much more than a biological phenomenon and has profound emotional and cognitive effects. [It] contributes greatly to national rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability; and is rising in prevalence."
For most people weed is probably a better choice for chronic pain, but I also think opioids have a more negative reputation than is deserved.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkg24
> If you struggle to screw the top off a jar, or use your arms to push yourself out of your chair, that's a sure fire sign, according to Dr Philip Conaghan, consultant rheumatologist and Professor of Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Leeds, that your muscles are weak. And the good news is that building muscle strength will protect your joints, not damage them. Dr Conaghan tells Mark that there's a worrying lack of understanding about the impact of muscle weakness on arthritic joints.