Purdue is not the only culprit in the opioid crisis

Purdue Pharma is applying for Section 11 bankruptcy after being hit with billions of dollars in legal claims for its role in the opioid crisis in North America.
Most people are probably cheering in a fit of schadenfreude, as Purdue is most definitely guilty of excessive and forceful marketing of its OxyContin pain-killer, even in the face of clear evidence of misuse and addiction and a burgeoning underground secondary market. It is estimated that as many as 350,000 deaths may be laid at the drug's door over the last few decades.
But Purdue is not the only culprit here, and it should not be carrying the bag for other players who bear at least some responsibility for the crisis. And I am clearly not the only person who thinks so (for example, this Guardian article dates back to March of this year).
For one thing, OxyContin is not the only narcotic pain-killer out there, and other Big Pharma companies are also guilty of using their money and lobbying power to influence regulators, politicians and the medical establishment in general in their favour. Furthermore, it was the Food and Drug Administration that opened the door wide for the prescription of powerful opioids in the first place, and which kept it open despite the warnings and recommendations almost ten years ago of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (one of the only institutions to come out of all this with any credit at all). Hospital corporations and health insurers readily bought into it, setting their own profits over their moral and legal obligations. Drug distributors, the mega corporations behind the scenes, deliberately turned a blind eye.
Other commentators (like this doctor and regulatory advisor) have identified a whole host of other institutions, including the American Pain Society, the Veteran's Health Association, the Joint Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and well-meaning researchers like Press Gainey. There seems to be no end to the potential villains in this crime.
But, hell, the doctors themselves surely bear a huge part of the responsibility (as the aforementioned doctor candidly admits), and they are not even being talked about right now. MDs are on the front-line and can see the effects of their over-prescriptions at first hand. They are often portrayed as the unwitting pawns of the drug companies, unable to resist the blandishments and cajoling (and the downright bribery) of the pharmaceutical companies. But they are not merely passive instruments; they write out the prescriptions, and they can choose not to.
And, last but maybe not least, the patients themselves cannot abdicate ALL responsibility. They are the last line of defence when it comes to their own health and, while most people tend to defer to health professionals on the assumption that doctor knows best, they are quite capable of reading the warnings in the press and seeing which way the wind is blowing. A doctor cannot force a patient to take a potentially addictive narcotic, and when offered "heroin in a pill", as OxyContin has been called, patients could just say no. There are alternative treatments out there, and it is ultimately upto the patient to decide whether the cure might not be worse than the illness.