Doctor, I Have A Cold, Would You Prescribe Me Hydrocodone?

We all realize how annoying and inconvenient the rhinovirus can be, but the insanity and irrationality of medical prescriptions and the reasons they are given has no limits. Consider this: a patient goes into a hospital with a broken arm, broken in a way that it's causing severe pain. The patient is on the way to being discharged, and the pain is still present. Prescriptions normally given for moderate to severe pain are hydrocodone and oxycodone, two semi-synthetic opiates which reduce pain and allow us to more readily accept it's presence. The patient is given a prescription to obtain a quantity of 30 OxyCodone, and is told to take 1-2 tablets every 4-6 hours, and he must come back if he is still affected by the pain. The patient waits about a week and comes back in requesting another prescription. The pharmacist; the doctor both give him hell because 50 OxyCodone should therapeutically last about 3 weeks. But we all know what I just said is complete bullshit. OxyCodone goes fast because tolerance gains faster. Regardless, after looking at this, let us look at a different situation:
A patient comes in with an inconvenient cough, telling his doctor that Over the Counter (of course I prefer under) cough syrup hasn't helped him at all. The doctor looks at the patients file and without hesitation writes a prescription for a hefty sized bottle of Hydrocodone cough syrup. Typically, a teaspoon usually contains around 5-15 milligrams of Hydrocodone. The quantity listed on the bottle is the result of calculating the amount of doses in the bottle. The quantity

is 240.

But we don't want the guy in the cast to get addicted. Prescription cough syrup is most commonly pain medication. People are usually ignorant of this fact or oblivious to it entirely, and continue to up the dosage bit by bit until theyre downing syzzurp by the bottle.