From https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose.1 Over 70 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2019 involved an opioid.2 Opioids are substances that work in the nervous system of the body or in specific receptors in the brain to reduce the intensity of pain.
Overdose deaths involving opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids (like fentanyl), have increased over six times since 1999.1 Overdoses involving opioids killed nearly 50,000 people in 2019, and nearly 73% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids.2