Already, the CDC has awarded more than $28 million to 44 states and the District of Columbia to support their responses to the epidemic. There is supposed to be millions more being assigned from the federal government to assist states across the country to fund treatment and education efforts.

Opioid Statistics Speak to the Severity of the Opioid Epidemic

To give you a deeper understanding of the opioid problem in the United States, here are some statistics that will blow your mind:

• According to the National Institution on Drug Abuse, “prescription opioid misuse alone (not including heroin addiction) costs the United States approximately $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.”

• The CDC reports that since 1999, “the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) quadrupled.”

• The CDC also reports that “from 2000 to 2015, more than half a million people died from drug overdoses, including opioids. Deaths from prescription opioids—drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone—have more than quadrupled since 1999.”

• In 2015 alone, approximately 33,000 people died in America from an opioid overdose.

• The CDC claims that “the amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors’ offices nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010, yet there had not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans reported.”

• Projections indicate that opioids could kill as many as 500,000 people in the next decade.

Do You Have a Problem with Opioids? Don’t Become a Statistic.

While these numbers are staggering, you can’t put a price tag or attach statistical data to how the loss of life and the degradation of the human spirit affects addicts and their families. Opioid addiction can bring death and destruction to everyone it comes into contact with. If you are struggling with an addiction to opioids, get help now before you become a statistic.