Once again I ask. Why is it everyone is on this drug today when 30 years ago no one was and everything was fine?
First of all, that's just bullshit. Morphine addiction (which is the direct historical comparison) has been a long and enduring problem... Morphine was discovered during the civil war... After the civil war, the average morphine addict was likely to be a veteran... By the late 1800-early 1900's the average morphine addict was liable to be a housewife. The FDA was formed primarily to enforce truth in labeling, because the cures and medicines that housewives tended toward were packed with cocaine, morphine, and laudanum.
All the way along, the elderly have been given morphine nearing end-of-life, to deal with unending pain, as have cancer patients, as have anyone with serious pain, short or long term.
If you'd like to go further back, it was opium, wherever the chinaman set foot - you can literally track opiate distribution right along the railways.