Opioid epidemic in the United States

In the United States, many painkillers that are prescribed use opioids. Opioids are effective at suppressing pain, but they often cause addiction. Because of this, many people in the U.S. are addicted, and there are also many addiction-related deaths. This is known as opioid crisis or opioid epidemic 
The crisis intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic . According to the CDC, almost 841,000 people died from drug overdoses between 1999 and March 2021. Most of them had become addicted to painkillers that had previously been prescribed .