At the time I was mostly offended by the "get back to work" comment. In hindsight, pushing massively addictive painkillers 6 years after the manufacture has been found criminally liable is more offensive.

Maybe it was because they hadn't been found liable in Canada... yet.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-judge-signs-off-on-oxycontin-class-action-settlement-1.4230705

There's so much sexism, and classism, in that. Women get told their pain is all in their head, and sent home with nothing. Men get told to get back to work, and given drugs. Only the top 10%, it seems, get any real health care.

At least that's how it is in the US.

+Nila Jones In Nova Scotia (Canada), I was just lucky to get access to a doctor at all. When I first moved to Nova Scotia, my wife and are were shocked at the number of heavy Oxy users. At the time, there was a known problem with over prescribing of Oxy.

I was on a wait list for access to a physician for 2 years... before they simply shutdown the wait-list service. I always imagined the over prescribing was a side effect of the doctor shortage. The physicians were simply exhausted, and not questioning "easy" answers effectively.

Yes. They also get pressure from patients, I think, many of whom want a pill to make whatever it is go away, don't care about addressing causes.

Ideally, a doc would have time to educate, and would be educated themselves...

The physician in question was covering for my GP (she was on holiday). This was my first interaction with my shiny new GP, I'll give her some credit: she's way better than him. That doesn't speak well for "the system": he's the senior physician.

Did I leap to too many conclusions?

Nope, I don't think so. Everything you said seems pretty legit.