I worked as a health care professional for over 18 years in a large medical center. I have seen a few people over the years who were fired immediately for talking about a patient to a collegue in an elevator and a member of the family was in there with them. I have also seen several professionals fired for discussing a patient condition with other people/family members. The hospital has no choice but to fire. As said above, it is against the law. We can be prosecuted. Also, there is a lot of research that shows that a person who is taking opiates for true pain relief has a very low probability of addiction. Addition is a bio-genetic disease. It is inhereted, much research has been done to prove that. Dependence is different. Dependence is diagnosed by the presence of withdrawal symptoms upon dicontinuation. Anyone can be dependent on opiates, benzos, corticosteroids, alcohol, SSRI's, etc. Addiction is a primary, chronic, progressive and nearly 100% fatal if not treated. Dependence carries non of these descriptions. ebs...