According to my guest, investigative journalist Jon Rappoport, the opioid epidemic is much more than an epidemic--it is a criminal conspiracy.  

He describes how the US Congress, FDA, DEA and Justice Department have systematically refused or failed to deal with the sources of the flood of pain medications knowingly over-produced and misdirected into the addiction market by the Pharmaceutical Industry.   Listen to what Jon has to say and you will a better informed if even more disillusioned citizen.  The political and industrial behavior he describes fits the pattern that I am familiar with--a Pharmaceutical Empire and medical profession devoted to profits and not to people, and a government that aids and abets them.