According to drugabuse.gov, from 1991 to 2013 there has been an increase in opioid prescription dispensed in pharmacies across the nation. In 1991 there were around 76 million prescriptions that were dispensed and in 2013 there were nearly 206 million. From these statistics, it can be seen that the opioid epidemic is a problem that has been on the incline in the US for years and will continue to do so in the future unless precautions are taken to stop it. At the symposium, it was brought up that doctors in the US receive very little pain training compared to other locations and other fields (in Canada doctors receive twice as much training and in the US veterinarians receive 10 times as much training in pain). In order to decrease the opioid
