06/10/2026
The opioid crisis wasn't a failure of the system. It was the system working exactly as designed.
What gets me is the timing. The worst of this didn't unfold in the dark, before anyone understood the risk. It unfolded after, with full knowledge, with spreadsheets. Somebody sat in a room and treated a death curve as a growth opportunity.
And it wasn't one bad actor. When the advisors, the distributors, and the pharmacies all profit from the same epidemic, you're not looking at a few mistakes. You're looking at an incentive structure. Everyone in the chain got paid to keep product moving.
The settlements don't change that. They're a line item, the cost of doing business, paid out of profits that dwarf the penalty. Nobody downsizes. Nobody disappears. The machine keeps running because the math still works.
That's the part worth sitting with. A system this profitable has no reason to heal you.
Comment below what you guys think. š