Drug Topics April 17, 2024
The ongoing opioid crisis in the United States shows no signs of slowing down. As trusted community health care professionals, pharmacists must play a key role in fighting it.
In 2010, there were 21,089 overdose deaths involving opioids in the United States.1 That number may seem significant contrasted with years prior, but it pales in comparison to the overdose rates of today: Data from the CDC showed there were over 109,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022, with nearly 70% due to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.2 That represents an almost 6-fold increase in opioid overdose deaths in just over a decade, something any person would find wholly difficult to comprehend.
Although drug overdose deaths had been on the rise for...
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