“Hale was popping so many of the highly addictive pills that he regularly ran out of his prescription early. His doctor cut off his supply and urged Hale to enter a detox program. That didn’t work. Hale, still in agonizing pain and now suffering from intense withdrawal symptoms, returned to his doctor and pleaded to get back on his opioid regime. The doctor refused. The next day, Hale put the barrel of a small-gauge gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.” From Bloomberg: Millions of Patients Face Pain and Withdrawal as Opioid Prescriptions Plummet. Stuck inside the opioid gray zone. (No matter which angle you view it from, the opioid crisis is a perfect storm of awfulness.)