Saying: For someone to suggest that you have to have chronic pain ro (sic) understand the horror that chronic pain patients are going through is ridiculously simple-minded. As far as  a person using illegal drugs because you have no choice....that's a cop out. People use illegal drugs for one reason, and that is because they are criminals. proves the point.   I was in a motor vehicle accident, several years ago, which resulted in an, extremely, painful injury. This was followed by a, lengthy, period of, extremely, painful physiotherapy. During this time, I used copious quantities of oxycodone.   Fortunately, my pain was temporary but, from the experience, I can tell you that, if you're in enough pain, you either aren't getting "high" or don't notice if you are and you'll do, pretty much, anything to reduce the pain.   Also fortunately, I don't live in the US so didn't have a problem obtaining the oxycodone. If I did live in the US and was unable to obtain the oxycodone legally, I would've have had no compunctions about obtaining it from a "street vendor". There's more than a little truth to the saying: "any port, in a storm".