I know, understand and have lived the point you all are making. I think the point I was going for was missed, however. I'm not saying people shouldn't be medicated because quite frankly, on days when I can't stand on my feet because the back pain is so intolerable my legs won't stand for it (no pun intended), I *need* the opiates to get to a place where I can walk to my bedroom... or clean my house or what have you. I suppose my point is that after a dependence has formed, we can no longer act normal on account of the dependency. It hasn't just effected our levels of pain, but it's impaired our thought process- what use to feel like the high some people were referring to, then begins to feel 'normal'. That's the way things work with any drug addiction. I'm not knocking anybody here and I hope this isn't taken that way- but think back to a time before you began taking your meds- think of how your pain was then comparitively to now. Was it not as frequent, perhaps? Maybe not as severe? Again, this is only based on my own experience and I will take the meds again, but I am all for them being controlled- Heck, mine are being controlled for me now at my request so that I do NOT become dependent again. And as I'd mentioned before, I'm feeling more and more like the person I was before I started taking hydro all the time with each hydro. free day that passes

I know that each of us takes our Rx because we need it- I think my point is that if it were otc, it would be that much easier to get the addiction and would be that much less thought of... *I think*.