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A brief historical account of how this came to be:

 1861–1865: During the Civil War in the USA, field doctors used morphine as an analgesic on soldiers, who subsequently became addicted.

 1898: Heroin is produced commercially by Bayer and was distributed to morphine addicts.

 1914: The U.S. Congress decrees that opiates and cocaine become prescription drugs.

 1924: Heroin is banned from both production and sale in the United States.

 1970: Various opiates are divided into groups according to their dependence potential.

 1980: An article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that opiate addiction is rare in people treated with narcotics. This was taken as “proof” that opiates can be used safely and effectively.

 1995: Oxycontin (retard opioid product of oxycodone) enters the market and is aggressively marketed (Purdue Pharma).

 2007: Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to advertising the product as safer than it really was, $634.5 million in fines were paid.

 2010: FDA (Federal Drug Administration) approves a new formula of Oxycontin that is supposed to make it safer and less addictive.