Deaths from opioid overdose are on the rise.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 28 percent increase in the number of deaths from opioid overdose between 2015 and 2016. “The number of people fatally overdosing on fentanyl and other synthetic opiates more than doubled, from 9,580 in 2015 to 19,413 in 2016.
Deaths due to heroin were up nearly 20 percent, and deaths from other opiate painkillers, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, were up 14 percent.” Greater concern lies in whether these numbers are under-reported, and there are even more deaths – bringing the opioid epidemic to a point of being considered deadlier than AIDS when it was at its peak.