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I can only speak from my experience. The only solution for my chronic pain was surgery and until I had a doctor willing to roll his sleeves up & do some hard work, uncontollable pain ruled my life. Until then, I could only hope to control the pain and for that I needed codiene.

Most pain has a physical cause, some easier to control than others. I still stand by my statement. If I knew I would become an addict (which I did not) I would still rather be an addict than live with the pain I endured because of a physical problem correctable only by surgery.

Codeine is good stuff. I take a little bit every day, and if I hurt bad, I take more. Demerol and morphine are good, too. God gave us opiates because He loves us, is my opinion. How else to explain how a plant-derived substance closely mimics exactly the body's own painkilling endorphins? Being a drug addict isn't a crime, in and of itself, either.

That said - drugs impair your mind, and they interfere with your thinking, and they impair your driving, and they make you dangerous in some occupations. I don't want a codeine-addicted airline pilot or brain surgeon, thank you. And I sure don't want kids hopped up on oxycontin driving around my neighborhood.

Rush's ability to do what he does strung out on oxycontin amazes me. He must have the constitution of an ox.