Description
Overdoses of painkillers have been responsible for nearly 200,000 deaths in the US in the last five years alone. US pharmaceutical company johnson and johnson has just been sentenced to a fine of over 500 million dollars. These painkillers contain opioids - artificial morphine. They work quickly and reliably - and are highly addictive. The opioid epidemic has destroyed families and entire communities and paralyzed the economy in many regions, affecting all age groups and social strata. Most of the medical practices and clinics that for years prescribed millions of opioids are now closed, and physicians, pharmacists, wholesalers and manufacturers are facing a wave of lawsuits. But at the same time, there is now a flourishing black market on the streets and in the darker reaches of the Internet.
