Unfortunately, it’s exactly what’s happening. The company is accused of violating then-new regulations that made it harder for both addicts and legitimate patients to access drugs produced in known strengths and purities. The result of such regulations is that both addicts and legitimate patients will turn to illicit substances that can be impure and can come in unknown strengths, both of which can be deadly.

The feds want us to believe that the company caused thousands of deaths. People rarely die from taking opioids as prescribed, whether they’re addicts or legitimate patients. They overwhelmingly die when they can no longer access pharmaceutical drugs and turn, instead, to drugs that don’t come from pharmacies filling prescriptions. It is rules and regulations, like the one the company has allegedly violated and like so many others over the past few decades, that caused those nearly all of those deaths.

I have no problem holding companies accountable for their actions. But that’s not really what’s happening, here. What’s happening here is that the government has failed, then doubled down, failed again, and doubled down, et cetera, and they’re trying to blame companies for their own failures.

For the past 20 years, the feds have been making it harder and harder to get pharmaceutical opioids. Over the same period, deaths from opioids have increased because buying non-pharmaceutical opioids means you don’t know what strength or purity you’re buying. This is more of the same idiocy and will lead to more needless pain, suffering, and death.

If you want to help addicts and patients, then help addicts and patients. Cutting off all access to relatively safer drugs produced in known doses and quantities isn’t helping anybody.