Obscure state regulations gave birth to the opioid crisis

The main reason why is what’s known as “deaths of despair,” with middle-aged men and women dying from obesity-related illness, suicide, and most notably, drug addiction from opioids. The opioid epidemic, which claimed more than 400,000 lives between 1999 and 2017, has been a national tragedy, and yet no one could pinpoint a cause or why so many Americans turned to addictive drugs. Others point to a change in the medical profession where opioids were prescribed more freely to reduce pain, but with the consequence that many people became addicted and turned to harder drugs.