I'm a doctor. During medical school and residency, I was taught in good faith that "only as much as necessary" opioid was OK to give and wouldn't create dependence - it was only an "excess" of opioid that would cause a problem. So under the banner of reducing the suffering of our patients, and a mandate to reduce patient-reported pain scores, opioids flowed relatively freely.

Now we know that was a terrible idea with devastating consequences. But we didn't know better and truly thought we were doing right by our patients. It's hard to imagine a programmer without medical training could be blamed.