I was just thinking about how productivity and lost days from work (less income tax paid)are often given as justifications (or at least factors) in government-generated articles about drug use...granted they are usually talking about illegal drug use. But I would be interested to know how much loss of productivity by us workerbees could be attributed to our inability to get good pain medications so that we can function? I don't guess our gov't will fund that study anytime soon.

I would be willing to bet that if the laws were changed to make it easier for people to get strong pain meds that the increase in productivity from people in pain being able to function better would far outweigh the loss of productivity due to people abusing the meds. I know I'm not the first to muse about this. It was just on my mind right now.