Technology would be the death throw of the Opium Epidemic. As a doctor would input the amount of Opoid’s/Narcotics that their patient could have daily within a regimented time schedule into a dispenser. This dispenser would only release those tablets to the individual who had a certain “fingerprint” or other identifying trait. This dispenser would make the medicine unusable if it was tampered with in anyway other then the way it was designed. No prescription would be given without such a dispenser. Of course technology would have to continue to have to improve to be up with the criminal element.
FOOTNOTE- There would be a direct tax on these dispensers which would go to fund drug rehabilitation centers that specialize in Opium addiction across the county