A few years ago, Peter Grinspoon, MD, slipped on ice and tore a tendon in his left thigh so badly that he needed surgery to reattach it. He was sent home with a prescription for the opioid oxycodone to relieve his pain. Yet Grinspoon hesitated to fill it, for good reason: He had become addicted to the painkiller over a decade earlier and had spent years determined to avoid opioids at all cost.
But after tearing his tendon, he felt like he had no choice: “If I took an over-the-counter pain reliever like Tylenol or Motrin,…
