President Barack Obama wrote in the January issue of the Harvard Law Review, “As their [prescription opioids] use has increased, so has their misuse.” This is true, but blaming only overprescribing of opioids for the current opioid crisis demonstrates a lack of understanding about the complexity of the problem.

The putative argument President Obama and many others assert is that the opioid problem was created by an excess supply of painkillers flooding our communities. Excessive prescribing is part of the problem, but without demand, there would be no crisis.