opioid epidemic

Heroin and other opiates have been around for a long time. Still, it was with the introduction of Oxycontin and other synthetic opioids in the late 1990s when the opioid epidemic took off. Pharmaceutical manufacturers were less than transparent about the addictiveness of these substances, and as a result, doctors confidently prescribed them to patients suffering from acute or chronic pain. Today there are more than 100 deaths per day…