House Oversight Committee: America’s Heroin and Opioid Abuse Epidemic

Friday Mar 25th, 2016

On the same day that the FDA issued black box warning to all immediate release opioids, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing entitled "America's Heroin and Opioid Abuse Epidemic." The hearing focused on the alarming increase in abuse of illegal opioids, i.e., heroin and fentanyl, as well as controlled prescription opioids like hydrocodone and oxycodone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids increased by 200% from 2000 to 2014. Additionally, in 2014, sixty-one percent of drug overdose deaths involved some form of opioid, and on average, seventy-eight Americans die daily from overdoses of heroin or painkillers.

Read more at: http://www.policymed.com/2016/03/house-oversight-committee-americas-hero...

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