Researchers find doctors played a critical role in the nation's opioid crisis

The authoritative sum of opioid-related settlements betwixt U.S. authorities and section governments and large pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers, marketers, distributors and retailers precocious reached $58.58 billion. Stark statistic from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention besides bespeak that since 1999, astir 860,000 radical person died from an opioid overdose, with astir 318,000 of those deaths attributable to medicine opioids. In 2024, 73.4% of cause overdose deaths were attributable to opioids, with 65.1% of those deaths from illegally made fentanyls, according to the CDC.