Canada’s hidden opioid crisis: the health care system’s inability to manage high-dose opioid patients

The evidence recommending nonopioid medications to be superior to opioid medications for chronic noncancer pain can (similarly to the evidence for opioid superiority) be criticized for not having adequate long-term follow-up, for small sample sizes, and for a lack of functional outcome data. However well meaning they are, the 2017 Canadian opioid prescribing guidelines were introduced to a health care system ill equipped to care for patients with chronic pain.