➡ From Child Welfare Information Gateway NJ:
US: America’s Opioid Crisis: How Children Are Casualties (Opinion)
Huffington Post – February 27, 2017
The opioid epidemic in the United States claimed more than 33,000 deaths in 2015, as public health officials call it the worst drug crisis in the nation’s history. Indeed, the deaths from heroin alone have surged and have claimed more lives in 2015 than homicides by guns. These drugs, these opiods, that are used to often block out pain. Whether illegal, such as heroin, or prescribed by doctors yet are also finding their way on to the black market, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, the rise in opioid use in America is both dramatic and disturbing. Yet, perhaps more disturbing is the number of children being affected by the increase of opioid use in all 50 states.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americas-opioid-crisis-how-children-are-casualties_us_58b44ecfe4b0658fc20f9828