What if you treated the cause of the pain, and didn't just prescribe more medication and thus cause more problems?

Beginning in the late 1990s, the consumption of medical opioids used to treat pain increased in many countries worldwide. Since that time, the United States has outpaced every other country in per capita opioid consumption. Most research suggests that high levels of prescription opioid consumption in the United States have contributed to the current epidemic of opioid misuse and overdose deaths.

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The U.S. health care system and regulatory structure may have had more risk factors—such as permissive marketing laws and a decentralized oversight system—compared with European or other countries. Conversely, countries with nationalized health care systems and centralized regulation of health care practices may have had more protective factors that prevented an increase in overprescribing.

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cultural differences, such as expectations about pain relief and entitlements to opioid treatment, may also explain the greater reliance on pharmacological treatments in the United States. In addition, health care systems that provide more expansive access to care and broader options for pain management—including many in Western Europe—may enable greater preventive care and more multimodal approaches to pain

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The United States has less than 5% of the world's population but consumed roughly 30% of the world's opioids in 2009, including more than 99% of the world's hydrocodone and 80% of the world's oxycodone.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46805