How the opioid epidemic became America’s worst drug crisis ever

Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than HIV/AIDS did at its peak
Vox (US)
Thursday, March 23, 2017

America is in the middle of its deadliest drug crisis ever. In 2015, more than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses, nearly two-thirds of which were linked to opioids like Percocet, OxyContin, heroin, and fentanyl. That’s more drug overdose deaths than any other period in US history — even more than past heroin epidemics, the crack epidemic, or the recent meth epidemic. And the preliminary data we have from 2016 suggests that the epidemic may have gotten worse since 2015.