Opiates play a vital role if they're respected my both the practitioners and patients. I don't think they are something to mess around with or joke about, Fentanyl is very dangerous if abused as a small mistake with the dosage often leads to death.

However, I do think that medicine is too reliant on big-pharma. It's too easy to hand out pills rather look at other treatments. There's exercise, hot/cold therapy, natural medicine (such as weed). Even mood has a large factor in how pain is perceived.