What is Opioid crisis, why is America worried?

Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone

US President Donald Trump has pledged to fight the epidemic 'opioid crisis'. He declared it as a "national emergency" two days after a meeting with top advisers to discuss tackling the drug problem.

What is opioid?

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA, the misuse of and addiction to opioids-including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl-is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.

Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.

NIDA says, these drugs are chemically related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain. Opioid pain relievers are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by a doctor, but because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, they can be misused (taken in a different way or in a larger quantity than prescribed, or taken without a doctor's prescription).

Why Opioid is a crisis in the US?

Top US prosecutor Preet Bharara had said that opioid abuse in America has reached 'epidemic' proportions with some 30,000 people dying a year from drug overdoses.

As per the statistics provided by Bharara, nearly 80 Americans die from opioid overdoses every day: almost 550 a week, 2,400 a month, 30,000 a year. Thirty thousand lives cut short; 30,000 families devastated; 30,000 communities scarred, every year.

He said: 'More Americans now die from overdoses than from car accidents or guns, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of overdose-related emergency room visits each year.'

Prescription painkillers and heroin contributed to some 60,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2016, a 19 percent surge over the previous year, according to an estimate compiled by the New York Times.

Given the rising number of deaths Trump's assured more funding to resolve the opioid crisis. Trump said : "It is a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had."

(With agency inputs)