FMCDH(BITS)
If the Doctors are "chickenshit", it's the type of Medical Boards such as here in VA who have made them like that - afraid of prescribing what they know their patient's need, for fear of being indicted, and losing their license, their practice and their livelihood.
My Doctor has to send my records to Richmond (a real invasion of privacy, to my mind) for the old jerks here in No. VA to review them and make sure my Doc isn't prescribing "too many" or mailing them to me or something.
Thank God, with all the stuff coming out about the Cox-2 inhibitors and other NSAID's that my body reacted to them, and my Doctor made the decision that we had to go "for the pain", and couldn't use any of the other meds.
And it is well known by now that people using pain killers for actual pain never experience any of the "euphoria" or "high" that others feel, because all we notice is the absence of pain.
The day I can't be prescribed the meds I've been on for the past 8 years is the day I think about checking out - because my life would be so miserable without pain killers. I won't be able to get out of bed without pain, wouldn't be able to move, stand, walk - without pain and I can not imagine how I would manage to do anything. I just don't think I could live with that much pain. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about it but I am concerned that my Doc might decide to retire in several years, and I don't know what I'm going to do then. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.