> that some very large percentage of opioid addicts were not previously prescribed opioids.
Doctors massively over-prescribed opioids. This meant American homes were awash with prescription meds, and lots of these were not needed by the person they were prescribed for.
So people started giving away their meds to relatives or neighbours, or selling them. Or people started stealing meds from their relatives to distribute.
The underlying cause is the same: massive over-prescribing of opioids.
I think I've linked to the right table, but just in case it's "Table 6.47B – Source Where Pain Relievers Were Obtained for Most Recent Nonmedical Use among Past Year Users Aged 12 or Older, by Age Group: Percentages, Annual Averages Based on 2011-2012 and 2013-2014", but there's a lot of information in this link.
That the path to addiction in many cases was purely extralegal.
This was on a single Reddit thread with either one or zero citations, so I’m unsure about it.
But I wish I knew the truth of this, because it would be one of those things where the common narrative is upside down.