Why do doctor's freak out giving people pain medications?

Many reasons: 15 years ago, using opiates to treat non-cancer pain was not acceptable. Our culture, placed physicians in danger of losing their licenses or felony for doing so. In the 1960s, even treating cancer pain with opiates was not acceptable. Hard to believe. The after-effects of that thinking still remain. Biases die slowly. Also, opiates, like all pain relievers, only take the edge off.