A long time member of Alchoholics Anonymous
The medical community in the US holds a great deal of culpability in the spread of opioid addiction. Irresponsibly prescribing heavy-duty painkillers to people over the last 20 years has caused a huge surge in the numbers of addicted. When the industry became aware the damage they had inflicted, they made it more difficult for people to obtain pain medications; many have switched to heroin.
I have seen so many in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous lose their sobriety, their lives and their dignity to pill addictions. Time and again, I hear sad stories of trust placed in doctors, and the beginning of a pill addiction. Please hold the medical community responsible --- our love of prescriptions and our trust of doctors has helped create this new nightmare in people's lives.