The opioid crisis is being called the worst addiction epidemic in American history. The statistics tell a grim story: 33,000 drug overdoses in 2016 — equating to 91 American deaths every day and rising.
In addition to the human toll of the epidemic, the crisis is placing an enormous burden on the U.S. economy. In 2015 alone, the epidemic was responsible for $504 billion in increased health-care costs, lost worker productivity and wages, and criminal justice system costs, to say nothing of the value of lives lost to overdoses.
