It started with a toothache. After surgery, he received a 30-day prescription for opioid pain medication and felt wonderful. After three days, he had used the whole prescription. At 18, the pills gave her instant relief from her emotional pain, but she spent the next 20 years struggling against the grinning spectre of addiction, Big Pharma, always lurking in the background. Over the three years to 2016, there was a 68% rise in the availability of opioid painkillers in the UK.