Illicit activity isn't the only driver of the nation's crisis with opioid medications and heroin, experts say. Expectations about how people should feel in the wake of medical procedures or other health challenges have long shared the blame.
"Americans have been told that we can and should be pain-free," said Constance Scharff, director of addiction research at the Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center in Los Angeles. "And doctors have been told that there are medications that will make that happen. That's the root of the whole drug epidemic."
Many doctors — who obviously don't want their patients to suffer — have received little training about addiction, Scharff said. That can increase the risk of over-prescribing.
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