You mean kind of like the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet, along with the band-aids and the toothpaste and the Q-tips? I'm no doctor, but my guess would be that keeping narcotic pain relievers on hand "just in case" might not be the best idea in the world.

A serious injury in an accident would call for urgent medical intervention by a Doctor or EMS tech, who would determine what medication (if any) should be administered, and how much, given the nature of the injury. Immediate relief of acute pain would almost certainly involve an injection of some sort. You would want a trained professional for that, not a worried family member or neighbor!

Hydrocodone and oxycodone in their various formulations have to be ingested, and it takes a while for the effects to be felt. Even so-called IR (instant release) pain meds like OCIR 5 (oxycodone intant release 5mg) need some time to work, (and they work differently on different people, depending on existing tolerance to opioids, body size, metabolism, contents of stomache etc.). (They are "instant" only in comparison to the time relased Oxycontin).

Plus there is the shelf-life issue. Many medications lose potency over time, especially if they are stored in humid or hot conditions. If you carried painkillers around in your car, for instance, to have at hand in case of a car-crash injury, they could be subject to all sorts of extremes of heat and cold and humidity, and might be useless by the time they were actually needed!

Then there's the whole problem of where to keep them so they are readily available at the moment of urgent need, but somehow at the same time out of reach of children, (as well as safe from pilfering by house-guests with a recreational inclination!).

Just my two cents!