In 2017, more than 70,000 deaths occurred because of drug overdoses. Opioids were involved in more than 47,000 of those.
The age-adjusted death rate for drug overdose in the U.S. rose 72% within a decade.
When the CDC analyzed data from emergency room visits, it found that opioid overdoses went up a whopping 30% in the U.S. from July 2016 and September 2017.
Opioids continue to be prescribed at triple the amount they were in 1999, but many are hoping to change that. The federal government has spent more than $2.4 billion in state grants since 2017 in a bid to curb the epidemic.
