Drug Enforcement Administration

Illicit Fentanyl Overtakes Prescription Opioids as Leading Cause of Overdose Deaths

2016-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

In 2016, illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids overtook prescription opioids as the leading cause of opioid overdose deaths in the United States, marking a deadly transition in the opioid epidemic. This shift represented the catastrophic unintended consequence of belated efforts to restrict …

Drug Enforcement Administration Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Illicit Fentanyl Suppliers opioid-crisis fentanyl synthetic-opioids public-health unintended-consequences