Doctor X was born in 1858 and entered medical school in 1878. Two years later he began spitting blood. His illness was diagnosed as tuberculosis, and he was sent home with a bottle of "Scott's Emulsion," to which a quarter of a grain of morphine per dose had been added. Six months later he was well enough to return to medical school--- "but found that, when he did not take his prescription, he had a 'craving.'  

To be without the drug for 24 hours made him nervous, sleepless, nauseated, and subject to hot flashes. On the other hand, when he took morphine, he experienced no excitement, but a "delightful sensation of strength-bodily and mentally," and could "concentrate upon [his] work to a remarkable degree." He therefore took morphine by mouth, usually twice a day.  

Doctor X graduated from medical school among the top ten members of his class, interned in a large city hospital, and entered practice-first in an Eastern industrial town, later in the Far West. ". . . His addiction caused him little inconvenience," except that he was, like most addicts, constipated. He weighed only 114 pounds at his heaviest-but he was short, and had had tuberculosis. Sometimes he went for a few days, or even weeks, without the drug, but then "suddenly the overpowering desire would come," and he would start taking morphine again.

Doctor X married twice, and had three children. On three occasions he took cures-"but each time returned to the drug after periods of as long as a year. Thus the habit continued over many years." 

In 1925, the forty-fifth year of his addiction, Doctor X got into trouble with the authorities for the first time. "His addiction came to the attention of the state board of medical examiners." This meant, of course, that he might lose his license to practice medicine. He therefore took the cure a fourth time-and this time remained abstinent for six years. "Then, during the course of a severe infection, he was given morphine, and has continued taking it until the present [eleven years later]. The average daily dose at present is 2 1/2 grains (150 mg.) taken hypodermically. This is several times the daily dose of a typical New York City addict of the 1970s.

Doctor X continued to practice medicine until he retired at the age of eighty-one, in 1939. Three years later, at the age of eighty-four, he was subjected to a thorough physical examination. Departures from the normal were few for a man of eighty-four in the sixty-second year of his addiction. "The evidence of damage is surprisingly slight," Dr. Cutting summed up, "as regards both physical and mental functions." The only serious disease from which Doctor X suffered was pulmonary emphysema-a disease associated with his cigarette smoking rather than with narcotics addiction.

Psychological tests were administered to the eighty-four-year-old physician by Miss Vee Jane Holt of Stanford. "The evidence is very clear," she wrote,

that Doctor X has been, and is yet, a person of very superior mental ability, even when compared with persons much younger than himself. Scores on the information and comprehension tests ... are significantly above mean score of persons in their twenties--- the age level at which intellectual function is generally regarded as maximal--- and therefore almost certainly far above those of the average person at his own age level. On the solution of arithmetic problems ... he did as well as the average person of 45 to 49 years of age. 

He did well on several other tests as well. Indeed, he failed only one test. When given a series of five random numbers-such as 5-3-8-2-6 he was able to repeat them forward but not backward. (The reader might try this test on himself.) "This is a typically hard operation for old persons," the psychologist explained.

This story is from 

by Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine, 1972.

This, in depth, 12 chapter study is a real eye opener as it reveals that the damage done by opiates is practically non existent once the laws, societal norms and high cost of acquiring the drug are removed. People who used the drug in the past had normal and healthy lives despite being addicted and they took up to 30 times the level of opiates that addicts typically take in today's  cut down versions.  The solution to help addicts and remove the whole crime element with all the bullshit that occurs from opiates is made obvious in this study. I have no idea why society doesn't demand it!

You can find the entire report here

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiates.htm