There’s no single villain in this story. Our dangerous embrace of opioids was the result of the entire medical establishment—including governmental, nonprofit, and pharmaceutical organizations—searching for an answer to the problem of pain. That problem is real: Managing pain, specifically chronic pain, is an essential part of any doctor’s practice. It is terrible to see people suffer and whenever possible and prudent, pain should be treated. And some of the players in this story were driven by real concern for patients’ quality of life. But others, specifically the manufacturers, were driven by crasser motives: the realization that they could make a fortune by pushing for wider use of prescription opioids.
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