My daughter is a drug addict. It started when she was prescribed to pain killers at the age of 14. She got them from the orthodontist when she got her braces on. Nice, huh? She's 20 now, did a year in jail, 2 months of rehab and 4 months more in a halfway house, all mandated by the courts. Drug addiction is a disease and should be treated as one. I had words with my daughters probation officer once and told him being on Probation doesn't cure addiction. Instead of throwing someone back in jail because they used a painkiller serves no purpose. It's just covering a gaping wound with a bandaid. So, for the next 5 years, my daughter is on parole and will be watched closely. So far, she's clean, and has been out of jail for 15 months. I just have to pray it continues. People choose to take the drug, but if it's given freely by a doctor for honest to god pain, then it's pretty hard just to blame the addict for their addiction.