Drug companies misrepresented the research around addiction; they aggressively sold the medication to doctors and patients; they continued these sales even when they had data showing large amounts of misuse in a region.

People seem to think there can only be one point of failure, one organisation or person to blame. The opioid crisis is complex and many things failed. You're right that doctors should not have prescribed as many opioids, but that doesn't absolve the makers or the insurance companies.

There doesn't seem to be any suggestion of fraud in the linked article? Nevertheless if Drs are relying on companies for unbiased data, that again seems like that should be addressed.

I'm not saying there's one point of failure, note in my prior reply I wrote "primarily" their fault. But Drs are the professionals here, they have a duty towards their patients. If a Dr prescribes something for me, I expect them to have weighed up the pros and cons. If Amazon recommends something I have no such expectation.

These companies usually operate on a global scale and yet the opioid crisis is limited to the US. Did the companies not try pulling the same tricks (misinformation, ignoring warnings) in other countries?

the idea is that they were falsely marketed to doctors as being non-addictive, which meant docs then prescribed them without concern for potential addiction - ie not helping the patient stop the drug, prescribing them for too long.

in the UK you can buy cocodomol, which is an opioid painkiller over the counter. but it has huge text reading "no more than 3 days usage" becaues of addiction risk. it's like JJ said to docs, we got cocodomol, but you can prescribe them for months because we made them non-addictive, and that's the lie.