Opioid Epidemic Reaching Crisis Levels Across the United States
The number of deaths caused by overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids has reached record levels in recent years, driven by a sharp growth in the number of painkiller prescriptions written and the increasing accessibility of heroin from Mexican and Colombian sources. According to the CDC, more Americans die as a result of opioid abuse than from AIDS at the height of that epidemic in the 1990s, with more than 27,000 individuals overdosing on heroin and prescription opioids each year.