> Portenoy toured the country, describing opioids as a gift from nature and promoting access to narcotics as a moral argument. Being pain-free was a human right, he said. In 1993, he told the New York Times of a “growing literature showing that these drugs can be used for a long time, with few side-effects, and that addiction and abuse are not a problem”.

Just very similar to what is said about benzos, marijuana and are starting to be said about LSD, GHB and the likes. We need more scientific evidence to know the toll these narcotics and psychotropics can cause to us in the long term, like the same scrutiny they treated the tobacco industry.