As the heroin crisis grows, doctors prescribe enough painkillers for every person to have a bottle

Tuesday Aug 9th, 2016

Every year in the United States, there are enough opioid painkillers prescribed to give one bottle to every adult in the country. Officials believe the over prescription of painkillers has contributed to the heroin epidemic that lives on every street, neighborhood and city. Student athletes, mothers, fathers and beloved celebrities have all fallen victim to the grips of the addiction.

America’s appetite for heroin has grown stronger, with more 28,000 opioid- and heroin-related overdose deaths in 2014, according to the CDC, with numbers only increasing year by year. In response to the epidemic, the Obama administration is treating it as a public health crisis,calling for an allocation of $1.1 billion in new funding to help expand treatment for those seeking it.

 

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