The US and Europe opiate situations can never be compared because in Europe opiates have always been drugs of last resort, used in palliative care or inpatient scenarios only.
Self-administered opiates just aren't part of the treatment regime, much as they weren't part of the US treatment regime in the 70s and 80s.
It's an entirely US problem created by the doctors-are-salesmen paradigm that is US healthcare, and it's only a problem because of the way the 'product' was 'marketed.'
It's definitely not true to say they are the drugs of last resort in the UK. They may not be the drug of 'first resort' like they were in the US, but there is still an awful lot of people getting Oxycodone etc via the NHS, especially in certain areas (tend to be rural and deprived... very similar to the US): https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/166DF/production.... The top regions on that graph is actually higher than the US rate (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html)
Self-administered opiates just aren't part of the treatment regime, much as they weren't part of the US treatment regime in the 70s and 80s.
It's an entirely US problem created by the doctors-are-salesmen paradigm that is US healthcare, and it's only a problem because of the way the 'product' was 'marketed.'