Today’s opioid crisis has no precedent, but Americans have been abusing drugs since the Civil War, when wounded soldiers were treated with morphine - an opiate to which many became addicted.Īs all opiates do, morphine at first generally sickens users. Abuse of prescription drugs has only risen since then. One of the earliest - and most infamous - celebrity overdoses was Marilyn Monroe’s in the night of Aug. Across the United States, more than 64,000 people died from opioid overdose in 2016, according to federal data.Īmong the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, and friends lost to the plague are celebrities: Heath Ledger in 2008, Michael Jackson in 2009, Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2014, Prince in 2016, Tom Petty in 2017. More than 2 million Americans are addicted to opioids, with costs for their care and treatment exceeding $55 billion yearly. IN 2017, OPIOID OVERDOSE officially became the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50. Marilyn Monroe's Death: Early Victim of the Opioid Epidemic Close
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