Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental Death in the United States; 44 people die every day from prescription Drug overdose.

Recently, it came to light that a large portion of these drug-related deaths (6 out of every 10 cases) were caused by one family of drugs: Opioids. Public health officials say that this opioid problem has been growing over the past 15 years, and it can no longer be ignored.

Opioid Drug Use Is on the Rise

Painkiller prescription availability and drug use has been on the rise for years. In 1991, 76 million doses of oxycodone (OxyContin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) were prescribed, and in 2013, prescriptions more than doubled (207 million). Because of this greater drug availability, drug-overdose deaths caused by opioids have increased. In 2014, three times more people died from prescription opioid drug use than they did in 1999. The latest numbers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not show the rates are slowing down. From 2014-2015, 72.2% more deaths related to synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) occurred.