Medicaid and Obamacare are heavily to blame.
Report: Medicaid And Obamacare May Be Incentivizing Opioid Trafficking And Abuse
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/17/report-medicaid-incentivizing-opioid-abuse/
One of the largest entitlement programs in the country is incentivizing prescription drug trafficking and exacerbating the national opioid epidemic, according to a Senate report.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a Major Staff report Wednesday, which details how Medicaid policies governing prescription drug prices, expanded at the state level through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, "perversely" incentivize opioid abuse and illicit sales, as well as larger scale trafficking operations involving both criminal drug lords and respected doctors. ...
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence