The US has a huge painkiller drug problem, as we all know. Part of the problem is pill mills that crank them out by the thousands for profit. The opiates were pitched and sold to the health care system as safe and unlikely to create addiction. I don't suppose that the big pharma people lied, did they? Surely we can trust them...?
There's a problem with limiting legitimate supplies, too. Tom Petty isn't going to make a trip to Walgreens every Saturday to pick up 7 pills when he's on tour...or recording out of town. Same for people who travel in business.
You would HOPE that people taking significant numbers of painkillers would have the sense to stay in contact with their doctor or have a family member help them manage the treatment. But we're all adults who want to run our own lives, and that doesn't happen much. And people who have any addictive tendency seem to fall into that trap easily.
I don't have solutions. I lament the situation. Personally, I'm aware of every Tylenol or Advil or Alleve I take, when the last one was, and what my pattern of use is. But I still use them more than I used to.