Opioid dependency
“Why did a pain medicine become the deadliest drug crisis in modern history?”
Root causes (expand to see solutions)
The opioid epidemic began inside the medical system of wealthy countries, not on the street. It runs as a chain:
What's at stake
Opioids drag down life expectancy, even in wealthy countries. They take parents from families and push children into foster care.
Sharing needles to inject them also spreads HIV and hepatitis C: one rural Indiana county saw 181 new HIV infections in a single year after an outbreak tied to a single prescription opioid, with 92% of cases also carrying hepatitis C.
The global picture
United States
High severity
The epicentre, where illicit fentanyl now drives a record overdose toll.
Synthetic opioids are now spreading into Europe and beyond, where systems are less prepared.