The central fact seems to be the one the CDC highlighted a while back: there's no good research showing that opiod pain medications help, even with pain, over the longer term (over 30 days, say.)

That's my experience: we don't have accurate memories for exact quantities of pain, but I'm "fortunate" enough to have an excellent litmus test: whether I can get to sleep within two hours. By that measure opiods have no positive effects for me that last more than 30 days. Zero.