The maker of OxyContin says it'll stop encouraging physicians to write prescriptions. It's not a panacea, but advocates say every little bit helps.
Addiction specialist Dr. Michael Weaver at Houston's UT Health Science Center says we'll probably need a lot more of this.
"It's good that they are pulling back on this but there are still other companies that are promoting their products and all of them have been doing so for quite some time."
What about medical marijuana instead of opioids?
"It's something that people tend to like the experience of using but it may not be quite so helpful for the thing they say they're using it for."
Dr. Weaver says the dream is to come up with pain pills that don't addict.
"I guess you could consider it a Holy Grail to look for an opioid that is highly effective but doesn't come with side effects like addiction as well as some of the others but that's a ways off even at the stage of the research right now it's going to be a while before something like that is commercially available."
Researchers at the University of North Carolina are trying to develop such a pill right now.
Dr. Weaver says if you or someone you know is addicted to opioids don't wait, seek treatment ASAP.