It’s the opiate epidemic. Scads of people under 50 dying form overdoses. You see it in the headlines every day.
I've been prescribed Vicodin for post-surgery pain. I always wondered how people became addicted. I couldn't wait to stop so I could return to normal bowel movements. There was no euphoria or "buzz" from taking the Vicodin. What I have read since is that opiods damage your nerves. The end result is that even though what caused your pain initially may have healed, when you stop the pain meds, you have pain from the nerve damage the meds caused. A case where the cure is worse than the problem in many cases.