The "war on drugs" has little to do with our opioid epidemic. These are people who were given "medicine" (mostly painkillers) and got hooked.
That is what makes the USA unique - it's almost impossible to be prescribed strong opiates anywhere else in the world, let alone to be told that they're safe.
You know something is prevalent when the drugs to treat its side effects are worthy of prime time advertising.
Well, we're one of only two countries in the world that allow direct to consumer advertising for drugs at all, so your statement is probably true.
(New Zealand is the other one for those curious, with Canada having some limited things they allow).
What the other poster is talking about is the reaction to someone being hooked, looking the other way and/or not treating it as a mental health issue and putting them in rehab instead of jail.
Then, imo, if you really want to get into it, destabilization in Mexico has created the actual heroin epidemic we see now, as the pill mills and doctors involved have had their operations closed.
"By 2002, death certificates listed opioid analgesic poisoning as a cause of death more commonly than heroin or cocaine."
If those people were on methadone instead, for example, hundreds of thousands of people who are now dead would still be alive.
Also if you read "Dreamland" 80% of heroin addicts started addiction with prescribed drugs.