Between 2000 and 2014, American rates of death from opioid overdose have tripled from three deaths per 100,000 people to nine per 100,000. That added up to 28,647 deaths in 2014. While the number of heroin overdoses has climbed steeply, the vast majority of the lethal overdoses involve prescription opioids—and the heroin crisis is itself closely tied to prescription drugs, since many users become addicted to a prescription opioid before switching to the street drug.
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