OVER AND OVER AGAIN, HUGE DECISIONS IN MEDICINE SEEM TO BE BASED ON THIS SORT OF “SCIENCE:” How a short letter in a prestigious journal contributed to the opioid crisis. “Over the following decades, the letter was invoked by doctors, academics, pharmaceutical companies and others as evidence that few users would develop addictions and that liberal prescription was justified. Of course, the analysis proved nothing of the sort, nor did it set out to. . . . Nearly 500 articles neglected to note that the letter concerned only hospitalized patients whose treatments were overseen by medical staff, rather than people prescribed take-home painkillers for, say, arthritis or minor injuries, the researchers found. A majority of the articles also cited the letter as evidence that addiction was rare in patients who took opioids. Other articles ‘grossly misrepresented’ the letter’s findings, Leung and her team wrote.”