In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, including prescription opioids, heroin, and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). That same year, an estimated two million people in the U.S. suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, and 591,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder.

Approximately 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them. NIDA estimates that about 80 percent of individuals who use heroin first misused prescription opioids. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, increased 72 percent from 2014 to 2015. In 2014, more than 80 percent of all fentanyl seizures were concentrated in just 10 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.