When I first took prescription opioids, purchased off the street and well before my knee surgery, I knew exactly what I was doing. I took them to get high, to numb my psychological pain. I did not know I would become addicted. Like most people, I thought addiction would never happen to me. But I wasn’t duped by pharma. My use of prescription opioids was no different than somebody using crack cocaine, alcohol, PCP, methamphetamine, or other drugs to numb or escape, and I’m not alone.