USA. Fentanyl: The Opioid Epidemic That's Killing America | Opinion
USA. Fentanyl: The Opioid Epidemic That's Killing America | Opinion
The number of bodies piling up in Florida’s 4th District morgue was so large last year, the medical examiner’s office ran out of room. In Cook County Illinois, medical officials responded to 74 overdoses in 72 hours.
(..) According to preliminary estimates recently released from the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 Americans last year, the highest number on record.
(...) While opioid overdoses are driving the increase in deaths, prescription drugs are no longer the primary cause. Instead “synthetic” opioids like fentanyl and its chemical siblings, so-called fentanyl “analogues,” are fueling the death spiral. It was fentanyl that filled the Florida morgue to capacity and fentanyl-laced heroin that overwhelmed Cook County’s first responders. (Newsweek, 12.09.2018)
https://www.newsweek.com/fentanyl-opioid-epidemic-thats-killing-america-opinion-1115758