Epidemic

"The bottom line is that too many [people] are still getting too much for too long," says Anne Schuchat, the CDC's acting director. "And that is driving our problem with drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths in the country."

"We're in the midst of the worst drug addiction epidemic in United States history, but we are still massively overprescribing," says Andrew Kolodny, an addiction specialist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/06/535656477/opioid-prescriptions-falling-but-remain-too-high-cdc-says