Opioid Epidemic

The Opioid epidemic in the United States has inflicted a catastrophic human cost on the country. Children have lost parents, young people have had their futures destroyed, and people have suffered a gradual and painful death. Some 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021. One under-reported aspect is how all these tragic deaths are hurting the national economy.

• Since 2017, Opioids have cost $1 trillion in Opioid deaths, lost productivity and policing.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 69,000 overdose deaths to synthetic Opioids in 2020. Synthetic Opioids are driven by fentanyl from China coming over the southern border.
• Heroin overdoses increased 7 percent in 2020 to 13,000, according to the cdc.
• 8 percent of workplace fatalities in 2020 were due to drug overdose.
• 3 million U.S. workers are addicted to Opioids.
• 75 percent of employers are affected by employees’ drug use.
• In 2021, Ohio suffered the largest annual per capita loss to the Opioid epidemic at $75.6 billion, followed by Massachusetts at $36.9 billion.

Read more at “The Economic Cost of the Opioid Epidemic”