WHY IT MATTERS: Opioid Epidemic
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October 23, 2016
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — THE ISSUE: More Americans are dying from opioids than at any time in recent history, with overdose deaths hitting a peak of 28,000 in 2014. That amounts to 78 Americans dying from an opioid overdose every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC uses opioid as an umbrella term for synthetic painkillers and for drugs derived naturally from opium (known more specifically as opiates), such a heroin.
It's not just the use of illicit opiates like heroin that is on the rise — overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have quadrupled since 199...
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