Combating the opioid crisis one doctor at a time

Sandeep "Sonny" Bains pulled up to Lyons Family Medicine in the pre-dawn dark armed with coffee, doughnuts and glossy brochures about paint treatments.

"What can I help you with for acute pain?" he inquired of father-and-son primary-care doctors Michael and Zachary Lyons as he was ushered into a wood-paneled back office.

Bains's quick drops-ins are modeled on those used by pharmaceutical sales reps to pump up sales. THe similarity ends there, though: Bains, a pharmacist, is part of a fledgling movement co-opting the drug industry's tactics to deliver a different message to doctors - that narcotics are not only addictive but also often no better at managing pain than safer, over-the-counter medicines.