Drug overdose now leading cause of death in US under 50s: Op-ed
Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death in Americans under the age of 50, with opioids expected to kill as many Americans this year as died in the Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam wars combined. The opioid epidemic has contributed to a reversal in death rates in the US, which had been falling for over 100 years. "The number of people overdosing is skyrocketing, and we have no indication that we’ve reached the peak", warns Dr Leana Wen, health commissioner of Baltimore. As previously noted, drug manufacturers are being investigated to see if they might have played a role in the addiction epidemic.

About as many Americans are expected to die this year of drug overdoses as died in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

For more than 100 years, death rates have been dropping for Americans — but now, because of opioids, death rates are rising again. We as a nation are going backward, and drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.

“There’s no question that there’s an epidemic and that this is a national public health emergency,” Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, told me. “The number of people overdosing is skyrocketing, and we have no indication that we’ve reached the peak.”

Yet our efforts to address this scourge are pathetic.

We responded to World War II with the storming of Normandy, and to Sputnik with our moon shot. Yet we answer this current national menace with … a Republican plan for health care that would deprive millions of insurance and lead to even more deaths!