The Fingerpointing State

I believe in personal responsibility. For me the bartender is not responsible for the drunk driver, the cigarette companies for the health of anyone who smoked after warnings appeared on packages, nor the Big Drug companies for the opioid epidemic. Jurist don't agree with me. So it goes.

The opioid thing is even more difficult for me to understand. The purchase of whiskey shots and cigs is an individual decision. Opioids require a prescription. You are not getting addicted without the aid of doctors and pharmacists. If you are purchasing illicit drugs to fuel your habit, that is not the fault of Johnson & Johnson. If you need to blame someone, why not go after the middlemen?

Here is a bonus question. Since Oklahoma (and other States suing Big Pharma) find opiates so terrible, what have they done to outlaw their use and sale in the state? Does the Oklahoma version of Medicade pay for those drugs still? Do physicians still legally prescribe these evil drugs?