Opioids, including prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin, killed more than 28,000 people in 2014, the highest year recorded. At least half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Deaths from prescription opioids—like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone—have quadrupled since 1999. More than 40 people die daily from overdoses involving prescription opioids, says the CDC.
But neighboring countries are also battling drug issues. Heroin use increased in North America overall in the past decade, the UN. says.
North America continues to hold the highest drug related death rate in the world, which accounts for an estimated one in four drug-related fatalities worldwide.
