Because there is something that people these days commonly refer to as "the opioid crisis" (or epidemic) [1]. And overprescribed pain meds are seen as a large

Because there is something that people these days commonly refer to as "the opioid crisis" (or epidemic) [1]. And overprescribed pain meds are seen as a large cause of it / aggravating factor. So yeah, "that whole thing". It's not an unusual expression, that I know of. 1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic