The number of U.S. fatal drug overdoses has more than doubled in the past eight years, with about 110,000 such deaths in 2022, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The leading cause of death, by far, is fentanyl, which has gone from prescription pain reliever to a synthetic opioid furtively smuggled into the country, and consumed illicitly in pill or powder form.
Behavioral health care providers have, at least, curbed the rise of deaths and hospitalizations, after going through multiple struggles in treating fentanyl, a substance exponentially more powerful than heroin and similar opioids.