1 Answer

All drugs are classified under 5 different groups or 'schedules'. Schedule 1 being the strongest drug on the market and schedule 5 being the weakest. Most narcotics that doctors prescribe fall into the schedule 2 category. The answer above listed morphine as one of the strongest and that is true, it's usually prescribed as fentanyl. But most doctors like to stick in the schedule 2 zone and reserve the schedule 1 drugs for patients who are dying, ie...cancer.

Codeine is a schedule 3 classification and not very strong. The top three strong pain medications that Dr.'s prescribe are, Percocet, Demerol, and Diluadid. Some Dr.'s will prescribe a fentanyl patch for patients who have a chronic problem. The biggest issue with pain killers, is the amount of acetametaphine that is in them. Which will make someone with liver disease worse. I think demerol however, doesn't contain acetametaphine.

The link below is the dea web site that lists all the drugs that are out there today and what they're classifications are. You can see where different drugs line up against others as far as which ones are the strongest.
Source(s):
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling…