The use of oxycodone, a strong painkiller and Class B controlled drug, has been the subject of debate in the medical community.
It is a synthetic, opium-like drug, which provides highly effective pain relief, particularly for short-term, severe pain, such as after surgery or an accident.
For some people, ongoing use of opioids - the drug family oxycodone is from - is the best option for relief from debilitating pain, allowing a chance to function with relative normalcy.
However, despite opioids' medical benefits, many have addictive properties.
Napier GP Dr Tim Bevin said opioids have their place in pain treatment but doctors should be hesitant to prescribe them. He said he hadn't started any patients on oxycodone or morphine for four years because of the potential for harm.
"We're always trying to limit the prescription of opioids in general. They do have their place but they also, obviously, have their dangers as well," Dr Bevin said.
"They're best used for acute episodes of pain, with a strictly limited prescription - no more than a couple of weeks - and should be reviewed regularly by their GP with the intent of reducing them as quick as is comfortable for the patient."
Despite the recommendations of short-duration prescriptions, Hawke's Bay DHB prescribes morphine for six weeks or longer - more than any other health board in the country per thousand population. The rate has increased 40 per cent since 2012, and sits 87 per cent above the national average.
"[Opioids are] useful in the acute stages, but long term ... Its efficacy is not really well supported in studies," Dr Bevin said. He said a dependence on morphine could develop, although that was uncommon.
Almost 2800 people in the Bay received a morphine prescription in 2015 - 57 per cent above the national average - compared with less than 1500 in 2011.
Hawke's Bay DHB's chief pharmacist William Allan said opioids were essential in acute care but reducing oxycodone use has been a focus because of the drug's "very addictive properties".
"When a strong painkiller is needed, morphine is generally the preferred medicine," Mr Allan said.
The number of people prescribed oxycodone in pharmacies fell from about 1300 in 2011 to 676 last year. Sixty-one people were prescribed it for six weeks or longer.
However, the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists said patients had become hesitant to take opioids out of fear of addiction, despite the majority of recipients experiencing no dependence.
"A groundswell of opposition to prescription opioids could be detrimental to the thousands of patients for whom they are effective," said Professor Milton Cohen, FPM's director of professional affairs.
"It would be most unfortunate for those people who respond well to opioids if this option was thrown out because of the risks of misuse."
Prescription opioid abuse was at the point of an "epidemic" in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 14,000 Americans died in 2014 from overdoses involving prescription opioids, and almost two million Americans were addicted. Methadone and oxycodone were the two most overdosed opioids.
However, the prescribing environment in New Zealand was vastly different and more tightly controlled than in the US, said addiction specialist and psychiatrist Dr Jeremy McMinn.
He said New Zealand was unlikely to ever get to the level of harm seen in the US.
Dr McMinn said oxycodone was a "highly addictive" opioid when used regularly, and its use in New Zealand had been under scrutiny for almost a decade.
"I think the safeguards are greater here compared with the US. It's a less sensationalist story, but I think the structure of healthcare provision here allows for more considered prescribing, which is your strongest safeguard.
"That having been said, many addiction specialists and some pain doctors would be concerned about the rate at which oxycodone has been prescribed without what seems to be adequate consideration around day-to-day safeguards," Dr McMinn said.
"We've become opioid-heavy in our prescribing."