The Hill: We Can’t Cure the Opioid Epidemic If It’s Not Treated As a Health Crisis

By Christopher J.L. Murray

We’re living with a virus-like disease sweeping our nation. Nearly every community is affected. The rates of death rise year after year. Between 1990 and 2015, the percentages of death more than quadrupled. We lost more people than the population of Pittsburgh. 

It’s the second-leading killer of men in their thirties, making the disease an even bigger threat to their health than being murdered with firearms. 

This killer sweeping the nation: opioid use.

...