The opioid crisis that continues affecting Nashua and plenty of other areas across the entire U.S. is not the fault of any single entity or group.

Blame should fall on a myriad of factors, some of which we will now highlight.

• Factor No. 1 – Giant pharmaceutical companies that flooded the market with opioids to earn billions of dollars in profits:

Indeed, “Big Pharma” continues profiteering from the sale of opioids. These include fentanyl, codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone and morphine.

• Factor No. 2 – Medical professionals who are often too eager to prescribe pharmaceuticals:

To say that doctors are sometimes overly excited to prescribe medication is an understatement. One of the editors on our staff once went to a dermatologist to see if they had skin cancer. When the dermatologist entered the examination room, he immediately noticed some modestly dry skin on our editor’s neck.

“I’ll write you a prescription for that dry skin,” the dermatologist said.

The dry skin was so mild that the editor had not even noticed it. The prescription lotion was never purchased.

Many patients who have sustained injuries, or are fighting some type of illness, are prescribed opioids to combat their pain. Unfortunately, they may become addicted to the drugs that were intended to help them.

• Factor No. 3 – Human weakness:

At some point, a person decides to inject, swallow, or otherwise consume opioids.

We certainly understand the desire to stop physical pain. However, humans somehow existed for thousands of years before the invention of fentanyl.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but it seems pharmaceutical companies are culpable for their share. With this in mind, the state of New Hampshire is now suing members of the Sackler family, who were instrumental in Purdue Pharma. The drug company, which recently filed for bankruptcy, produced the OxyContin opioid.

“Without defendants’ actions, opioid use would not have become so widespread, and the opioid epidemic that now exists in New Hampshire would have been averted or would be much less severe,” New Hampshire Deputy Attorney General Jane Young alleged in the complaint she filed in Merrimack County Superior Court.

“Their blizzard of dangerous prescriptions buried children, parents, and grandparents throughout New Hampshire, and the burials continue with no end in sight,” Young added in her accusations against the Sackler family.

We have no way of knowing how, or when, this litigation will end. We do, however, know that opioids continue creating problems across Nashua and the nation – and blame for that extends far beyond any one family.