Physicians have been advised to issue opioid prescriptions on the theory that for short terms and low doses they were not addictive. That Industry provided advice was false.  

I made the mistake of getting an opioid prescription filled after my gall bladder was removed. I say mistake because I ended up returning the entire bottle for disposal, not because I was not foolish enough to get hooked. 

I was never in the sort of discomfort that would have led me to take a potentially addictive substance. My advantage was having seen an alcohol and nicotine addicted father, and a brother who blew 40 years of his life away in pot smoke, living in our parents basement until we evicted him for elder abuse at age 60.