The opioid epidemic that claimed 33,000 lives nationwide in 2015 may actually be worse than thought, based on findings by researchers lead by Dr. Victoria Hall, a field officer with the Centers for Disease Control in Minnesota.

Nearly 80 people die every day in America from an opioid overdose. At the same time, sales of prescription painkillers have increased 4-fold since 1999. Meanwhile, about 80% of the country’s 2 million opioid-dependent patients are not receiving the treatment they need.
Dr. Jeffrey Unger, J Family Practice, Jan 2017 ....

The prevalence of fentanyl and an increased number of cases involving cocaine resulted in the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office confirming Wednesday a distressing bottom line expected for months: Opioids killed more people in 2016 than any year in the county's history.

The heroin and fentanyl epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives in Cuyahoga County reached a record level with 666 drug overdose deaths being reported in 2016. Officials said throughout the year that the county was on pace to exceed previous years' totals; a Wednesday news release provided final tallies for the year.

Officials also see no end in sight and are projecting another spike to approximately 775 deaths in 2017.

"What we've seen over the beginning of 2017 is it's getting off to a start that's worse than 2016," Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson said last week in a news release.

Heroin and fentanyl killed more people in Cuyahoga County in 2016 than homicides, suicides and car crashes. ....

More than 2,000 Cuyahoga children in foster care, highest since 2011, thanks to opioid crisis.

Stories such these and more flood our news these days. Even in rural places such as Ohio, the drug overdose has become a big problem. We cannot ignore it anymore. We have to be on alert in case this becomes a problem in our homes.

We start covering the addiction issues in Malankara World starting with this issue. We stress alcoholism in this issue. In future issues, we will cover the other addiction issues.