email article The follow-up to this article's prelude was initially intended to be an exposition of the clinical pharmacology and real-world outcomes data for tapentadol (Nucynta), which for numerous reasons has become our Schedule II opioid of choice for the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain severe and refractory enough to warrant consideration of such. That will have to wait another month or two though, as the lead-in article generated so much spirited feedback – much of it demanding response (and rebuttal) – that I've decided to present a tour of the pre-clinical, clinical, epidemiologic, and historical evidence indicting oxycodone as the most addictive of the prescription opioids.