THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Drug overdoses are increasing and pharmaceutical drugs are increasing their percentage of that number.

Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times.

The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Our estimate of 62,500 deaths would be a 19 percent increase over the 52,404 recorded in 2015.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50, and all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017.

The initial data points to large increases in drug overdose deaths in states along the East Coast, particularly Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Maine. In Ohio, which filed a lawsuit last week accusing five drug companies of abetting the opioid epidemic, we estimate overdose deaths increased by more than 25 percent in 2016.

“Heroin is the devil’s drug, man. It is,” Cliff Parker said, sitting on a bench in Grace Park in Akron. Mr. Parker, 24, graduated from high school not too far from here, in nearby Copley, where he was a multisport athlete. In his senior year, he was a varsity wrestler and earned a scholarship to the University of Akron. Like his friends and teammates, he started using prescription painkillers at parties. It was fun, he said. By the time it stopped being fun, it was too late. Pills soon turned to heroin, and his life began slipping away from him.

When various pharmaceutical opioids are not the cause of overdose, they are time and again shown to be the "gateway" drug to the heroin that kills. If they weren't so profitable they would have long ago been removed from the market but thanks to the money Big Pharma happily ships millions of pills to hotbeds of addiction, 9 million to one rural pharmacy alone. Profits before people.