The Stranger contributed to the opiate epidemic too. When I moved here 7 years ago I read articles in this very paper complaining that some doctors didn't believe patients who said they were in pain and wouldn't prescribe the drugs they demanded. I also remember lots of non-judgmental discussion of heroin use. Drug companies and doctors deserve most of the blame for our current disaster, but you guys didn't help.

@1 Heh. What 'disaster' are you talking about? There seems to be some widespread idiocy operating here. The 'opiate crisis' I would say mostly refers to the epidemic of overdoses. What is more often than not the cause of overdoses? Let's see, could it have something to do with the fact that once people with addictions to prescription painkillers are cut off they turn to heroin and fentanyl?

And hey here we have another brilliant idea from Pete Holmes. What, has some parasite eaten his brain?

Working harder to cut addicts off from relatively safe prescription drugs is quite likely to worsen the 'opiate crisis', not improve it. Way to go Pete!

Washingtonians: ok so...you don't like pain relief? hmm...in fifty years i still have yet to meet someone who isn't in some form of physical emotional or mental discomfort. opiates are the LEAST of our communal problems in WA. can you say "fraud"? oh my...chasing around a little white pill is hillarious to me. Meanwhile Equifax just gave out everyone's personal info. Bravo for exploiting a tempest in a teapot.

"In the current budget year, Fiscal Year 2015, the states will collect $25.6 billion from the settlement and taxes. But they will spend only 1.9 percent of it – $490.4 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit."