Drug overdoses can be accidental or intentional. They occur when a person takes more than the medically recommended dose. Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose

Opiates have always been used for pain relief. And fair enough, no one wants to go through an operation without morphine. These drugs were tightly controlled because they are potentially addictive. Doctors would keep a close eye to make sure their patients weren’t becoming dependent. But, from 1999 onwards something changed.

The number of drug overdose deaths has quadrupled since 1999. Over 70% of the 70,630 deaths in 2019 involved an opioid.

Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and many others. All opioids are chemically related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain. Opioid pain relievers are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by a doctor, but because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, they can be misused. Regular use—even as prescribed by a doctor—can lead to dependence and, when misused, opioid pain relievers can lead to addiction, overdose incidents, and deaths.

From 1999–2019, nearly 500,000 people died from an overdose involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids. This rise in opioid overdose deaths can be outlined in three distinct waves.

• The first wave began with increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids increasing since at least 1999.

• The second wave began in 2010, with rapid increase in overdose deaths involving heroin.

• The third wave began in 2013, with significant increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl.