Aspen Ideas Festival

Deep Dive: The Opioid Tsunami

It’s been called the most perilous drug crisis ever. In the United States, the epicenter of the opioid epidemic, overdose deaths have quadrupled since 1999, killing 91 people every day. Pharmaceutical pain relief is an essential clinical tool, but with physicians writing some 240 million opioid prescriptions to Americans every year, the potential for abuse is enormous.

Deep Dive: The Opioid Tsunami

1h 28m

It’s been called the most perilous drug crisis ever. In the United States, the epicenter of the opioid epidemic, overdose deaths have quadrupled since 1999, killing 91 people every day. Pharmaceutical pain relief is an essential clinical tool, but with physicians writing some 240 million opioid prescriptions to Americans every year, the potential for abuse is enormous.

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