Since 2000 there have been 915,515 people who have died from a drug overdose in the United States (US). This number continues to increase and in 2021 drug overdose deaths reached a record high of 107,622, and opioids specifically were responsible for 80,816 of those deaths. This unprecedented rate of drug overdose deaths is the direct result of increasing rates of illicit drug use in the US.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We are facing a significant challenge in combatting the current opioid and drug epidemic worldwide. In the USA, although there has been notable progress, in 2017 alone 72,000 people died from a narcotic overdose. The NIAAA & NIDA continue to struggle with innovation to curb or eliminate this unwanted epidemic.
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