For nearly two decades, the United States has experienced a growing crisis of drug abuse and addiction that is illustrated most starkly by deaths from drug overdose. Since 2000, the number of drug overdose deaths has more than tripled from 17,500 to 63,500 in 2016.^1,2 Most of these deaths involved opioids, including heroin and prescription painkillers.³ In the years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared overdoses from prescription painkillers an “epidemic” in 2011, the opioid overdose crisis has evolved rapidly from a problem tied mostly to prescription opioid painkillers to becoming increasingly driven by illicitly trafficked heroin and synthetic opioids.

SHADAC has produced two briefs that provide high-level information about opioids and opioid addiction, present the historical context for the epidemic of opioid-related addiction and mortality in the United States, and examine trends in opioid-related mortality across the country and among population subgroups as well as among the states.

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¹ U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. “Drug Poisoning Mortality: United States, 1999-2015.”
2017. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/drug-poisoning-mortality

² U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Overdose Deaths Involving Opioids, Cocaine, and Psychostimulants — United
States, 2015–2016” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2018. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6712a1.htm?s_cid=mm6712a1_w

³U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2010–2015.” Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report. 2016. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm655051e1.htm