In fact, I further expanded my original post to share more of what the professors and other doctors who've treated me over the years have shared. I take an active interest in my care and have been grateful to learn what they want to convey for my own safety.
It has unfortunately been my observation that when these big lawsuits happen, companies which marketed and profited from their medications in abusive ways are rightly punished, but so are the 'good' patients by extension. The punishment often doesn't stop at payments to families, who (I hate to say) sometimes must accept that their addicted or deceased relative had some measure of responsibility to seek care. As I'm sure you'd agree, you know you're a dependent when you feel the effects of forgetting to take your medications. There's no way an addict doesn't realize they're addicted, because that goes far beyond what dependents deal with.
What doesn't stop, as I mentioned above, is that these cases are often catalysts for the pursuit of new laws which make physicians fearful to prescribe pain medications when they are completely justified. The majority of patients with chronic pain do not become addicts. The DEA nevertheless cracks down and people suffer as a result, sometimes taking their own lives because they can't bear the uncontrolled pain.
I don't begrudge the families who drive these suits their right to justice against the pharma company. However, as a patient, I do find that the freedom of care my physicians felt they could give has vanished over the years as said huge legal cases extend into witch hunts by lawmakers. That's why I post my honest thoughts, unpopular though they may be. Some people really do need opioids as a point of survival (do not underestimate the power of pain as a primary disease), even extended release forms in severe cases.
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