Today one of the most widely abused drugs is prescription pain medicines, namely a class drugs called opioids. Several media outlets have run articles discussing the prevalence of prescription pain medicine addiction and how addiction to opioids can often lead to heroin use. Many of these articles tried to raise awareness of the problem, but offered little by way of solution or what the doctor’s responsibility is in this situation. To further complicate the matter, a treatment often used for heroin involves giving the patient more drugs, the likes of which has its own black market value (e.g., Suboxone or Subtex).Some researchers say that this phenomenon is a direct consequence of the so-called “War on Pain” that was popularized in the 1990s. This assumes that the role of medicine is to eliminate pain, as opposed to managing pain. This seems to fit within a larger worldview shift within medicine that sees the role of medicine as eliminating suffering rather than caring for those who suffer. This is not to say that there is no place for palliative care, and certainly, it is good when pain and suffering can be eliminated. However, it seems that there is a difference between debilitating pain and suffering and relieving discomfort. In this paper I would like to explore the use of pain medicine from a Christian and Hippocratic tradition. I have a background in chemistry and bioethics, which lends itself to discussion on the chemistry of these drugs, but I would like to incorporate by background as a science writer, as well, and incorporate interviews with physicians who can illuminate what they believe is the physician’s responsibility in this issue. I hope to eventually make this into a larger project covering a broader scope of the ethics of the “war on pain,” palliative care, and mental health.