How should we view the 'opioid crisis,' which cost the U.S. nearly $1.5 trillion in one year, and claimed the lives of approximately 80,000 Americans last year due to opioid addiction?

Potent opioid analgesics include morphine, oxycodone hydrochloride, and fentanyl. Not familiar with them? Morphine, with just a slight structural modification, becomes heroin—familiar now? In clinical practice, cancer patients are commonly treated using the WHO’s three-step analgesic ladder. Step one involves widely used drugs such as acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin and ibuprofen. By steps two and three, opioid medications are frequently introduced. Why go into all this detail? To emphasize that, when used appropriately, opioid drugs are undoubtedly a blessing—and even life-saving—for pain patients: a beacon of hope in moments of despair. So how did these drugs become so widely abused in the United States? By 2020, this news was already old: fatal drug overdoses linked to synthetic opioids surged in the U.S. both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report mainly pointed to fentanyl and methamphetamine. What is fentanyl? It is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Its upgraded variant, carfentanil, is 10,000 times more potent than morphine—just 2 milligrams can be lethal. What is methamphetamine? Ice. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made an interesting claim: this fentanyl is entirely synthetic and originates from Mexico; meanwhile, precursor chemicals like acetylfentanyl come from China. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs began responding to such allegations as early as 2019—and has done so again recently. Beyond baseless accusations, how have companies massively manufacturing and trafficking these 'drugs' been held accountable? No problem—just pay fines to the government. In 2022, another case emerged: on August 17, a federal judge in Ohio ruled that CVS Health, Walmart, and Walgreens must collectively pay approximately $650 million to two Ohio counties to settle lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic. It was found that these three pharmacy chains had heavily dispensed opioid prescription drugs in Trumbull and Lake Counties, contributing to hundreds of local resident deaths. On November 23, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio ruled that these three retailers bore responsibility for the opioid crisis in those two counties. Quite interesting, isn’t it? Rather than imposing strict bans, authorities simply levy fines on corporations—some pay up, while others file counter-suits. On October 23, 2020, Walmart sued the U.S. Department of Justice over who should bear responsibility.

Shameful! McKinsey exposed in massive scandal—nearly half a million Americans have died from this addiction.

Recently, the prominent U.S. consulting firm McKinsey & Company was exposed by The New York Times in a major scandal. Many shocked American netizens have directly branded the company a 'murderous corporation.' Earlier reports from multiple U.S. media outlets revealed that Purdue Pharma admitted playing a despicable role in America’s opioid crisis—bribing pharmacies and physicians to aggressively promote its opioid painkiller OxyContin. On October 21, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Purdue pleaded guilty to three federal charges and agreed to an $8 billion settlement with the Department of Justice. According to this exposé, McKinsey—Purdue’s management consultant—had actually proposed several egregious recommendations urging Purdue to further boost OxyContin sales—even amid the severe nationwide opioid abuse crisis. (Screenshot from The New York Times report) Since 2000, opioid abuse has claimed over 470,000 lives across the United States. Many believe that Purdue’s painkiller oxycodone triggered the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic. Oxycodone—the painkiller. Today, Ku Shu will tell you the story of how opioids flooded America. This article is an excerpt from the book What’s Wrong with America?, published by CITIC Press in September 2020. The original title is 'The Pain of Opioids'; the excerpt has been edited and does not represent the views of Liao Wang Think Tank. 1 Legal Heroin? In his book Imperial Twilight, historian Stephen R. Platt (also translated as Pei Shifeng) recounts the origins and course of the First Opium War between China and Britain. Like the American South after the Civil War—or today’s American working class—the Qing Dynasty faced profound crises. In the 1830s, the British East India Company’s most profitable business was opium trade: opium grown in India and shipped to China. Dr. William Jardine, born in Edinburgh, was among the most influential opium merchants. His partner was Scotsman James Matheson. In 1832, they co-founded Jardine Matheson (now Jardine Matheson Holdings). Today, the company employs over 400,000 people and ranks among the world’s top 300 corporations. As Platt notes, Jardine, Matheson, and other opium traffickers 'were not stigmatized in their home countries… but instead became some of the most respected members of their respective societies.' A sculpture depicting a broken opium pipe stands at Taiping Square in Humen Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province. Photo | Xinhua News Agency Fortunately, the Qing government refused to endorse the trade and attempted to ban it outright. In June 1839, Lin Zexu—a national hero in China—acting under direct orders from Emperor Daoguang, destroyed over 1,000 tons of British opium (a full year’s supply) in Guangdong. Opium traders lobbied the British government for compensation. Though politically unfeasible, Britain could dispatch gunboats to force China to pay reparations—and simultaneously compel China to open additional coastal cities not only to opium, but also to other British goods.

CVS Settles US Justice Department Case Over Opioid Prescriptions for $315 Million

20 hours ago

CVS Health agreed to pay $315 million to resolve DOJ allegations of unlawfully filling unnecessary opioid prescriptions. The settlement mandates new safeguards to monitor controlled substance dispensing.

reuters

2026-10-13

CVS Settles US Justice Department Case Over Opioid Prescriptions for $315 Million

CVS Settles US Justice Department Case Over Opioid Prescriptions for $315 Million

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