I vouched for this comment specifically to refute it: it's not uniquely American at all. With 5 seconds of searching I get this article: https://www.economist.c

I vouched for this comment specifically to refute it: it's not uniquely American at all. With 5 seconds of searching I get this article: https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2015/04/18/a-pill-for-work-and-play https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2015/04/18/... which states: "A painkiller becomes Egypt’s favourite recreational drug". It's from 2015 - just yesterday I read on my local news site that there are at least 3 million people addicted to opioids in Egypt. The topic comes up fairly regularly in the Middle East context. It's not just the Middle East, you can find a lot of other examples all over the world. So, no: not uniquely American at all.