Those Sackler and Purdue shareholders weren't going to create profits themselves, government subsidized opium helped them fuel the opium epidemic for those record corporate profits.

Upon first arrival in the middle east, US troops protected oil & poppy fields first.

My friend went there several years after the start of the conflict and he said that the troops watched over the fields and poppy farmers. He said it was a surreal thing to see, and he completely changed his view of the US government. Then when he was done with his service he went full-blown GQP. I don't understand the Qanon bs, but his distrust of the government comes from a very real and tangible place.