Because there is something that people these days commonly refer to as "the opioid crisis" (or epidemic) [1].

And overprescribed pain meds are seen as a large cause of it / aggravating factor.

So yeah, "that whole thing". It's not an unusual expression, that I know of.

1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic

It might not be unusual, but in this context it was confusing