Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's not much content in this article. However, if people tend to use a drug beyond its prescription, with very bad results, that's still a reason to change things. I mean, ipads do not have a big red button with "rm -r /" listed. I don't see why the drug industry should be exempt from designing constraints that prevent user error.
You can't even imagine the pain and suffering the constraints currently in place cause legitimate users of pain killers. Doctors are so scared of the DEA they're doing crazy things. Someone very close to me had a ruptured disc, killing the nerves in her spine, so much that just standing would cause pain that made her black out or vomit. And even though she'd never been prescribed anything for pain, she had to hover o…
* patient such as your friend has excruciating pain, requiring the heaviest of the narcotics (say oxycodone/oxymorphone, instead of a "mere" hydrocodone that you'd get for wisdom teeth or something ).
* these narcotics are so incredibly dangerous that they must be taken exactly as prescribed for the following reasons. 1) Patients have a temptation to take an extra one (or snort one) to achieve a euphoric and addicting "high" that can be irresistible once its experienced. 2) In some cases taking even one or two extra pills can kill the patient. 3) Patients have incentive to Not take them because some pills can fetch up to $40 EACH on the black market. 4) not taking them exactly as planned can cause a tolerance buildup or reduction, which can stymie the physician's efforts to find the safest minimal and effective dose for continuous pain management.
* To combat all 4 of these factors, pain management specialists enter into "contracts" with their patients that they will treat their pain, if and only if, they agree to take the pills EXACTLY according to plan. To affirm compliance to this plan, the patients are subjected to random drug testing. Not just to see if they are getting high (over using them ), but also to see if they are using them at all, (i.e. not selling the pills for a massive profit ). IIRC, if you show up to your test and they find no painkillers in your urine, you can be taken OFF the plan, i.e. no pills for you.
tl;dr they drug test patients to make sure a precise plan is being followed because there are at least 4 separate "failure modes" to chronic pain management.
I learned most of this from news articles and reading junkie's tales on /r/opiates. I'm not an expert, nor user, but I just find the whole topic very interesting. Please correct me if I've said anything wrong.