It is alleged that the opiod crisis was due to fraudulent conduct by large pharmaceutical companies who made billions on pushing them. True?

I think you need to look at the bigger picture rather than jump to conclusions and branding everything you don't like as "evil". 

Drug companies want to make money - that is their reason for being.  But they are not going to be able to sell products by saying they harm and murder people.  So they develop them for specific uses to deal with specific things and test over and over and when they coma up with something they think effective enough it will sell then they market it.  Which includes advertising, free "samples" to doctors, kickbacks to doctors to prescribe them etc.  Now these substances also happen to have negative effects on people as well - maybe not all people  but enough people that eventually the harm they cause can be traced to them. This is natural - dealing with artificial chemical substances I would say there are none that will be entirely safe for us - they just don't exist.  So then it becomes a matter of are we willing to risk the possible bad side effects for whatever good they do us?  Buyer beware - as with everything.  Many things we take into our bodies will harm us but we do it anyway because we like the effects they have or with foods we like the taste etc.  And this is not just true of this country but anywhere.  We take chances on life and gamble with our health.  True weather we are taking drugs or eating sugar or meat or fast food or soda or alcohol or most anything.  We can't all just live on brown rice and seaweed. 

Any advertising is going to play on peoples' weaknesses - appeal to desires - will it make us more beautiful. more feminine, ,ore able, stronger, sexier, more intelligent etc. etc.

Perhaps you have noticed now that advertising has been forced to include possible negative side effects or drugs that such ads end with a litany of possible consequences usually including stroke or death.  Goodness that puts it all right our there don't you think?  And then eventually enough lawsuits crop up they are paying out damages so they pull the drug off the market.  Meanwhile they have introduced other ones. 

We are, not any of us, obligated to buy a product or buy into any advertising if we choose not to. But for those who do if they think they want to take something or if their experience with it has been more positive then by banning anything you would be robbing them of their choice. Without industry and advertising we would not have the bounty that we now enjoy in this country nor the choices. Without the desire to make money coupled with the idealism of making a better life for people there would be no business or industry.  Without human desire for a better life their would be nothing at all.  We have the choices but it is our responsibility and in our hands to make the right choices for ourselves.  No one can do it for us.