Addiction: Opioid epidemic

Short, easy to read overview.

Short, easy to read account of the opioid abuse epidemic and political responses to it.

Peer reviewed, academic, review-article with good reference list.

About prescription opioids, illegally made & distributed fetanyl, and heroin. About the epidemic. Epidemiological data. Information for patients and providers.

"Also known as “opioids,” the term “narcotic” comes from the Greek word for “stupor” ..."

"Fentanyl and fentanyl related compounds such as carfentanil and acetyl fentanyl are synthetic opioids...."

Links to data from various national surveys.

An evolving list of data sources put together in a Google doc by a ProPublica journalist. Very useful; sources include more than data. "This tipsheet will help provide data sources on 1) How opioids are being prescribed across the country, 2) Deaths and hospitalizations linked to opioids, and 3) Treatment for opioid abuse and addiction, including doctors who are certified to prescribe buprenorphine. Moreover, there are a variety of state and local resources". Posted March 2018.

Magazine article, links to other good sources.

"...Over 80% of drug overdoses in the city involve opioids, which include heroin and prescription painkillers, such as: Heroin, Morphine, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Fentanyl. Recently fentanyl, a drug that is 50 times more powerful than heroin, has been showing up in heroin, cocaine, pills marked as Xanax® and other drugs. Fentanyl was involved in nearly half of the overdose deaths in NYC in 2016...."

Press release, January 23, 2018.

Court papers filed in NY State Supreme Court, Civil Branch, New York County. (Case information database is called "Scroll" - and you have to go through a Captcha).