legal paradigm that criminalises drug users instead of helping them; an abstinence-only approach to treating drug addiction that impedes evidence-based medication-assisted treatment; corporate greed; a political class that takes marching orders from the lobbyists of said corporations; entrenched poverty, joblessness and hopelessness; and a general epistemological failure when it comes to ideas about what 'drugs' are, which psychoactive chemicals are safe and which are dangerous, and what a drug dealer is supposed to look like. [This] prepared a consumer market for heroin. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, each one of them a world." (Emily Witt, p. 23.) Oliver, J. E., & Carlson, C. (2020). Misperceptions about the ‘Opioid Epidemic:’ exploring the facts. Pain Management Nursing, 21(1), 100–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmn.2019.05.004 Leahy, L. G. (2017). The opioid epidemic: What does it mean for nurses? Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 55(1), 18–23. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20170119-03 2010s disasters in the United States 2010s health disasters Health disasters in the United States United States Sackler family Opioids in the United States