Or even cannabis. The OG of pain management. Cannabis is documented over 10 millennia before Aspirin. Who knows how long before that it was used. Before the oligarchs in USA conspired to eradicate it from earth in 18th, 19th and 20th century, it had significant biodiversity, who knows how many medicines were lost. But thanks to the many outlaws who continued to cultivate it in very diverse soils and climates, it is very diverse again. Still, the capitalist pharma companies can only think in terms of "what molecules can I patent and sell?" They reluctantly allowed the studies investigating whole-plant effects, marketing it as "entourage effect", but this was only so they could patent formulae in much the same way.

I think my point here is just that we have to get away from the stupidity of the capitalist system before we advance.

Even with pain management in general I may have been a bit harsh on the doctors for believing lies. Their entire schooling is filled with capitalist lies, so they are trained to believe them. But that doesn't mean innocence either.

There are courses in med school about pain management, reducing physical dependence and all that. Even if they are colored with pharmacorp propaganda, a good doctor should be able to filter out the bullshit.