There was an excellent program on television a few months back that traced the opioid crisis to “ground zero”, a very small town in a rural Southern State. It was astounding ! It traces it back to the “top”, the drug companies. It explains how a one horse town became the billion dollar center for “pain clinics” all over the South and adjoining states.
The drug companies knew what was going on but they were making too much off of it to stop.
The “pain clinics” were often used to get people hooked on the drugs,