First off while I agree with many of you, I think the word "junkie" is thrown around a bit too liberally if anything. Not every person who seeks treatment for addiction is the stereo-typical heroin addict sticking themselves with needles. That's not the case anymore. Nowadays more people are seeking treatment for addictions to pain pills that were prescribed to them by Doctors.
Case in point: I have a good friend who was in a car accident four years ago. She suffered a great deal of trauma to her spine and ruptured three disks in her back. She was barely able to walk for weeks afterward. Instead of sending her to continual physical therapy, chiropractors, aquatherapy etc. her Doctor prescribed her enough pain medication to knock out a horse, and told her all the other options available to treat pain were "useless". After two years her doses had quadrupled as her tolerance quickly adjusted. Shortly after her "know it all" Doctor got in trouble with the DEA for over-prescribing narcotics and not keeping accurate records, and his license was suspended. She went to pick up her prescriptions and found a note stating that this would be the last RX her would be able to write her and any other patients. An estimated 75 patients that he had basically turned into drug addicts were left to fend for themselves. No other Doctors would agree to prescribe her the medications, or even wean her off. I myself took her to the ER once where they gave her a shot and suggested she go to a detox facility
I accompanied her to a follow up appointment with a Pain Specialist. The woman was very honest and told her that this was no way to treat chronic pain. If my friend were ever to be involved in an accident there would be no way to stabilize her condition seeing she was already on such high doses of narcotics. She was far too young to be on such high doses of narcotics, for when the tolerance rises to a certain point, there's nothing left to do. After a long time, no drug will do it anymore. She suggested the same exact things I had suggested to her years before. Aquatherapy, physical therapy, massage and chiropractics. Also many non-narcotic pain medicines are helpful. My friend was left with no choice but to turn to a methadone clinic to help with her withdrawal. She lives in Manchester and attended a clinic owned by another company. However after six months of therapy and working in conjunction with the Pain Specialist she is narcotic free and has learned many new ways to manage her pain.
My point is that not all people who seek treatment are "junkies", or "bad" people. Some of them have become addicts and don't even know it. I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I will tell you, a lot of Doctors are nothing but legal drug pushers. No it is not the entire fault of the Doctor, I know that the Patient has the choice to say no, however when you have a Doctor telling you that this is the only thing that will work, most people tend to believe the Doctor.
After giving birth to my daughter via c-section I had more people trying to push pills on me then I could imagine. I left the hospital with a stack of prescriptions, and all but one went in the trash. Not to mention the things they were trying to dose me with while I was in labor....unimaginable. It's no wonder addiction is so rampant in this society.