# Percentage of medical opioid users who become addicted

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-medical-opioid-users-who-become-addicted/772269>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 17, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-medical-opioid-users-who-become-addicted/772269 "2016-11-17T17:02:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-medical-opioid-users-who-become-addicted/772269/1 "2016-11-17T17:02:42Z")

</div>

In Maine, opiate addiction and overdose are a massive crisis, and I often hear about overpresciption of painkillers as the cause. How many patients who are taking these drugs as directed fall into an addictive spiral?