The Opioid Tragedy, Part 1: ‘We’ve Addicted an Entire Generation’

How pharma greed, government subsidies, and a push to make pain the “fifth vital sign” kicked off a crisis that costs $80 billion a year and has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans

Stephen J. Dubner/ Freakonomics Radio
GEN
Published in
8 min readJan 20, 2020

--

Oxycodone pain pills prescribed for a patient with chronic pain lie on display
Oxycodone pain pills prescribed for a patient with chronic pain. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

--

--

Stephen J. Dubner/ Freakonomics Radio
GEN
Writer for

Stephen J. Dubner is co-author of the Freakonomics books and host of Freakonomics Radio.