dr. anna lemke, dr. colodne to you in the studio sir, secluding cancer patients and palliative care who should receive opioids and for how long? >> opioids are medicines that are essential for end much life care and a few days after major surgery, for example. the reason the cdc is issuing this strong recommendation is because they are concerned that doctors in the united states are overprescribing opioids for common conditions. the practice of treating low back pain and chronic headache, fibromyalgia, with long term opioids, has become widespread. and what the cdc is saying is we are harming far more patients than we're helping and we're fueling epidemic of addiction and overdose death. >> to you dr. lemke, opioids have been around for years. what triggered the explosion in use and the resultant addiction? >> well, starting in about 1980, there was a huge push to use opioids more liberally in the treatment of pain and it came out of a well-intentioned place. there were a lot of people struggling with se