{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,20]],"date-time":"2026-04-20T12:00:30Z","timestamp":1776686430400,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]],"date-time":"2024-01-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1705017600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The prescription opioid epidemic has slowly evolved over the past quarter century with increasingly detrimental consequences for public health. Man-made crises are often unforeseen and characterized by a situation without natural causes where \u2013 because of human intent, error, negligence, or the failure of manmade systems \u2013 the level of needs in the population exceeds available resources to counter the problem. This paper presents the prescription opioid epidemic as a man-made crisis and explores the public health impact of opioid manufacturers and other industries producing commodities with addictive potential as a shared vulnerability among countries. We examine this concept within the framework of the commercial determinants of health. We address three key aspects of the commercial determinants of health: (1) Cross-industry mechanisms, (2) policy inertia, and (3) the role of industry in science. Within cross-industry mechanisms, we explore parallels between prescription opioid epidemic and unhealthy commodity industries in terms of marketing, corporate use of misinformation, and diversionary tactics. Next, we examine how policy inertia has dominated the slow response to this man-made crisis. Lastly, we discuss how results from clinical trials are used as a key marketing strategy for drugs. The origins of the prescription opioid epidemic may be traced to innovations in drug development with the promise of improved pain management. However, through multiple factors, including fraudulent marketing from pharmaceutical industry and policy inertia, the resulting crisis represents a multi-system failure of regulation exploited by corporate greed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2023.1241404","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]],"date-time":"2024-01-12T04:39:52Z","timestamp":1705034392000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Pills and the damage done: the opioid epidemic as man-made crisis"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Rebecca","family":"McDonald","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Desiree","family":"Eide","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Svetlana","family":"Skurtveit","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Clausen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/978-90-481-2498-5_1","article-title":"Natural and anthropogenic disasters: an overview","volume-title":"Natural and anthropogenic disasters: vulnerability, preparedness and mitigation","author":"Jha","year":"2010"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.18043\/ncm.79.3.175","article-title":"Reducing the oversupply of prescription opioids","volume":"79","author":"McEwen","year":"2018","journal-title":"N C Med J"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"485","DOI":"10.15288\/jsad.2019.80.485","article-title":"Anatomy of two epidemics: what we can learn from studying long waves of alcohol and opioid use","volume":"80","author":"Babor","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Stud Alcohol Drugs"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"686","DOI":"10.1111\/add.12118","article-title":"Commentary on Casswell (2013): the commercial determinants of health","volume":"108","author":"West","year":"2013","journal-title":"Addiction"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1194","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(23)00013-2","article-title":"Defining and conceptualising the commercial determinants of health","volume":"401","author":"Gilmore","year":"2023","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.1111\/nyas.14209","article-title":"Epidemiology of the U.S. opioid crisis: the importance of the vector","volume":"1451","author":"Compton","year":"2019","journal-title":"Ann N Y Acad Sci"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1192","DOI":"10.1111\/add.15845","article-title":"What lessons from Norway\u2019s experience could be applied in the United States in response to the addiction and overdose crisis?","volume":"117","author":"Clausen","year":"2022","journal-title":"Addiction"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1515\/sjpain-2018-0307","article-title":"Prescribed opioid analgesic use developments in three Nordic countries, 2006-2017","volume":"19","author":"Muller","year":"2019","journal-title":"Scand J Pain"},{"key":"ref9","unstructured":"2022"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"109281","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugalcdep.2022.109281","article-title":"Opioid related deaths in Norway in 2000\u20132019","volume":"232","author":"Edvardsen","year":"2022","journal-title":"Drug Alcohol Depend"},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103785","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugpo.2022.103785","article-title":"Increasing trend in accidental pharmaceutical opioid overdose deaths and diverging overdose death correlates following the opioid prescription policy liberalization in Norway 2010\u20132018","volume":"108","author":"Gjersing","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int J Drug Policy"},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e47","DOI":"10.1192\/j.eurpsy.2021.2219","article-title":"Is Europe facing an opioid crisis like the United States? 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