To end this epidemic we must know how it began. The opioid epidemic is unique compared to other drug epidemics. It didn’t begin in the opium fields of far off countries or in the back alleys of urban centers. It began in the labs of pharmaceutical companies and in marketing team pitch meetings with the explicit goal to make their companies exceedingly profitable by encouraging physicians to over prescribe their addictive drug.
From the boardroom to the waiting room, this is how a crisis that we will be fighting for decades began.
