Modern medicine provides more help than ever before for people suffering from severe or chronic pain. In recent years, the marketing, prescription, and use of opioid painkillers has skyrocketed. While providing much-needed relief to millions, these narcotics have also become the most problematic prescription medications in the country, found at the center of historical numbers of addiction and abuse cases, medical emergencies, and crime waves. “Vicodin, OxyContin, and Other Pain Relievers” gives readers the inside story on this newly notorious class of drugs and offers suggestions to help people affected negatively by abuse of these drugs.