The opioid epidemic became one of the biggest healthcare challenges as one of the leading causes of death nationwide in the United States. In October 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency due to the consequences of the opioid crisis. It has been called by some public health experts as "most consequential preventable public health problem in the United States."
There were nearly 90,000 overdose deaths reported between October 2023 and September 2024. A year prior, in 2022 alone, around 108,000 people died from a drug overdose. Out of those deaths, about 76 per cent deaths involved opioids, shows data from Centers for Disease Control.
Since 2000, more than one million Americans have died from drug overdoses, with the vast majority of those deaths linked to opioids. What started as a rise in people using prescription painkillers has turned into a much bigger problem. Now, heroin and stronger drugs like fentanyl are making it worse. Even though there have been efforts to raise awareness, create rules, and provide treatment, the crisis keeps spreading, taking thousands of lives year by year. The CDC officially declared the rise in prescription opioid deaths an epidemic in 2011. These medications which were originally prescribed for pain management, were widely available in the early 2000s, leading to a wave of dependency and misuse. As regulations tightened and prescription drugs became harder to obtain by the time, many people turned to heroin and other illegal alternatives. This marked the second wave of the crisis that began in 2010, as overdose deaths involving heroin began to climb. However, the most recent data shows decline of fatalities due to heroin. Instead, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and tramadol overdose increased drastically since 2013.
By the mid-2010s, a third and even more deadly phase emerged. Synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, became more common. Fentanyl is far more potent than heroin or prescription painkillers, making even small doses potentially deadly. Between 2010 and 2017, fentanyl-related deaths increased nearly ten times. Today, it is the leading cause of opioid-related deaths. While the overall rate of opioid-related deaths remained relatively stable between 2021 and 2022, the types of opioids involved are shifting. Fentanyl remains the most dangerous driver of overdose deaths, and public health officials warn that its impact is far from over.
