You can help reverse the overdose epidemic

You're looking at a chart of annual US drug overdose deaths going back to 1980.

You can see it getting slightly worse almost every year, then rising more dramatically

starting in the 90s, mainly driven by overdoses on prescription opioids.

Overdose deaths accelerate in a second wave through the 2000s, and starting in 2013, a

catastrophic third wave emerges, kicked off by highly potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

But by the end of the 2010s, the fatal overdose epidemic in the US almost looked like it was

starting to take a turn.

The annual number of deaths dropped for the first time since the crisis started.

But then…

Stay at home, that is the order tonight.

Coronavirus emergency.

Living in lockdown.

As daily life became more isolated, US overdose deaths reached new heights.

In 2021, the annual death toll from drug overdoses crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time,

killing more Americans that year than firearms and fatal car crashes combined.

Historically, America's strategy for reducing drug use has been broad prohibition and criminalization

of both selling and using drugs.

But you can see that criminalizing drug use hasn't stopped the overdose death rates upward

trend.

But gradually, the US is starting to turn to different methods to fight the ongoing overdose

epidemic.

And one of them is something you and I can do starting today.

For the last 10 years, the most significant cause of fatal overdoses by far are cheaper,

stronger, and widely distributed synthetic opioids, namely fentanyl.

Elicitfentanil is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and is often mixed into other drugs

to make them stronger and more addictive.

The result is that it's often consumed unknowingly.