The broader opioid timeline goes something like this. In the mid 1990s pill mills are overdispensing pain meds. I live in a pill mill area and saw the rise and

The broader opioid timeline goes something like this. In the mid 1990s pill mills are overdispensing pain meds. I live in a pill mill area and saw the rise and fall first hand. In the 2000s the feds are cracking down hard; pill mills are shuttered over the next decade. Mid 2010s cheap fentanyl is being shipped to the US and opioid deaths are climbing. News orgs notice; politicians notice. Both blame the former pill-mill problem. Late 2010s politicians pass laws sharply limiting access to pain meds and begin signaling that health care providers can be penalized for whatever the feds interpret as "over prescribing". Chronic pain patients are suddenly cut off from pain relief that had enabled routine living - for years. Faced with a loss of productivity or obtaining pain relief illegally, they choose one of those. I still see this first hand. Patients find that their doctors are strongly resistant to prescribing pain meds when indicated. State laws limiting pain meds to 3 days compound the problem. Post-op and ER patients are increasingly prescribed acetaminophen for significantly painful events. For the past 5 years: News orgs wind-down pill mill citations; ramp up focus on Fentanyl and need for treatment. Politicians attack Fentanyl but are divided about decreasing addiction through treatment - usually along party lines. Politicians and news orgs are unitedly oblivious to the plight of pain patients.