Regarding the motives for the war on pain meds, there may be other explanations. The motivations, of course, should be studied thoroughly — perhaps with the help of economics and government experts, as well as other professionals who have the expertise and tools to do more than speculate. My speculation is a little more complex, but I think your explanation has some appeal, too. It is common knowledge that there is a history of corruption in drug enforcement. Driving up demand and prices by cutting off other sources would make a lot of sense. Using contraband laws to generate and enrich black markets has a long history, and your explanation is defintely not out of the running. But I don’t think low-level corruption of that type would drive such a massive policy effort, which obviously comes from very highly placed policy decisions. I think larger political/economic forces are at work — BIG money. Since this administration has proven it’s overall governing philosophy to be the selling of government influence to big corporate buyers, I think I have a better idea. My guess is that this war is the political will of the pharmaceutical corporations — to stamp out opioids because they cannot patent them. This creates a lot of pain, and a lot of medicating with expensive (patented) NSAIDS. The chronic untreated pain creates a lot of complaints, a lot of office visits, and a lot of prescriptions written in an effort to find a solution. Palliative care for chronic pain cuts into their profits, so they are adjusting their market through political manipulation. Just a thought. More work is needed in this area. I even have a way that I can force the recent Purdue Oxycontin case to fit this model — without a long stretch of imagination. If my explanation doesn’t make any medical sense, I would surely like to know that and know why before I spend any more time on it.