Every day, 175 Americans die of overdosing on opioids, medicines that are supposed to relieve pain. This number represents more than traffic accidents and gun crime deaths combined.
In 2016, almost a million Americans used heroin, and 2 million abused or became dependent on prescription opioids (according to the CDC). In that year, the total number of deaths related to the opioid epidemic led to almost 60 000 in the US .
These figures were provided by a special commission created in August 2017 by Donald Trump, who singled out this crisis during his election campaign.
As was the crack in the...