A Star is Gone –
Oct. 16, 2018 – The misuse of prescription medications has been rightly referred to as a national public health crisis and includes opioids, including prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl kills the most people between the ages of 25 and 34 and an approximate 90% of overdose deaths in January and February of last year involved fentanyl.
The results impact public health, as well as social and economic welfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimate that the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, which includes the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment and the involvement of law enforcement.
