That also includes physicians. Their asses are on the line for every patient they treat. If one of their patients OD's, a full death investigation will be done, possibly including DEA, possibly including the medical board.
If any perceived misconduct is found on behalf of the doctor, s/he could be sued, censured, fired, or perhaps even jailed. When you study for 12-15 years to get a single job, the emotional pain from losing it all isn't far from the physical pain of what your friend went through. Not to mention that doctors have empathy, and would also feel guilt and remorse if their actions killed a patient.
Even though it was a painful, humiliating ordeal for your friend, that's better than cavalierly throwing opiates at her which could have possibly killed her.
> People have agency. And should be allowed to make their choices.
I am not trying to sound like an asshole here, but with pain pill addiction, you don't have agency. that's precisely what addiction is ! You lose agency, willpower, and even develop narcissistic defenses (in some cases) to provide a psychological pathway to defend the addiction. You become a slave. This is exactly why they are regulated!
As for over prescribing, that should be no more dangerous than any other medicine. If my doctor gives me 800mg ibuprofen and I take 10 of them in the morning, he isn't responsible. As it should be for pain killers.
As for addiction sucking, I also already agreed it is a problem, but when I weigh it against innocent people, who didn't make a conscious decision to do something wrong, I find it the lesser of evils to let people make that very bad choice. Do I really need to say I don't have a problem with doctors monitoring patients for addiction? But extreme measures are being taken, not out of an over abundance of caution for patients but because the DEA is throwing doctors in jail.
I don't have the data to back this up, but I don't think the DEA is the primary impetus for drug testing patients. What I surmise is that most likely, a double-blind academic study was done, just like how they establish every other standard treatment protocol. Likely, they determined that drug-testing patients significantly reduces the incidence of OD and abuse, i.e. reduces morbidity and mortality. Being scientists, they adopt the technique that works.
There is a big difference between treating a one-time injury and writing a prescription for 20 pills, versus someone with a pinched spinal cord that's never going to get better, that gets a permanent supply. For the latter, you go to a pain specialist. IIRC GP's dont even get involved with that.
> that should be no more dangerous than any other medicine
an NSAID "should be no more dangerous" than an opiate ? Please tell me you are aware that unrelated molecules will have dramatically different pharmacological effects on a human body.
If a doctor gives you access to a deadly product, one that could kill you if you go over by merely a single pill, and doesn't do everything they possibly can, then a jury, medical board, or (in rare cases) the cops might have a case for malpractice or patient endangerment. Anyway, I dont have any more fuel to back this argument up, but I wish your friend the best, pain-free life!
People have agency. And should be allowed to make their choices. Especially in cases where not allowing them to make their own choice starts hurting innocent people. And by hurting, I mean that very very literally in this case. The type of pain that causes people to end their lives. Caused by a system more afraid of a bad decision than of leaving people alternating between howling and sobbing in pain for days.