Hooray!!! I work in a publicly funded health clinic and see the exact same things you are talking about.

We do have people with VERIFIABLE pain, like cancer patients, or people with horrible injuries, etc, and our doctors can prescribe as much as they need to for these people.

But for every one of those we have four or five who fit the profile this restaurant manager has described. And I've watched this whole cycle of constant reinjury and withdrawal leading to demands for higher and higher doses of medications. And I've seen several accidental overdoses this year, and that's just in my area...yes, people, these drugs are dangerous...

Also, sometimes the doctor will order drug testing, and we also see patients who test negative for their medications: they are selling them (and you should hear the ridiculous excuses they come up with!!!).

And Tenance has hit the nail on the head: our doctors need to be able to require a patient to try other alternative forms of therapy before allowing them to have opiate-class pain medications...but then our drug companies would not make the huge profits they are making now, now would they???