That said, I agree with you that patients who need these drugs should get them. I had to get emergency surgery a few years ago and they also gave me morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl at the hospital. I find it hard to imagine how awful the experience would have been without medication.
Almost no one is suggesting this medication should be banned. A significant driver of the problem was that Purdue pushed heavily for 12 hour dosing periods despite knowing that the medication wore off in only 8 hours for a non-negligible number of patients. Their motivation for this was explicitly financial.
Patients were faced with following the dosing periods Purdue were strong-arming which meant enduring 4 hours of pain, finally salved by an addictive opiate or taking the medication more frequently than prescribed, running out early, and exposing many of them to black market alternatives.
The opioid epidemic happens because 1/10 is a crazy ratio. It means every doctor is creating multiple addicts a week.
I'm fine with them denying this degree of painkiller to most people so long as ones like me can receive it. From my actual lived experience that it is not addictive, and that all of fentanyl, hydromorphone, and oxycodone were tremendously helpful, I'm not going to go along with this banning stuff.