From what I can tell from the article, it’s not clear what the guy was selling. Maybe it was the claimed drugs, maybe it was water, but he had no idea and he was not only unaware, but also was making claims (“highest quality” and "made in the US’) that were patently false.
So he wasn’t so much “providing a path to medicines” as he was fraudulently making the claim he was doing so while putting all his customers at risk of harm.
Right or wrong, I believe the intended message was, “[They] began drinking more. They still are (drinking more).”