Drug overdoses are costing the U.S. economy $1 trillion a year, government report estimates

U.S. government officials said synthetic opioids are akin to “a slow-motion weapon of mass destruction.”

Highlights

Synthetic opioids are responsible for two in three reported drug overdose deaths in the U.S.
in the year to June 2021, a report said.
More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses during that period, an increase of 30% from a year earlier.
Opioid overdoses have been responsible for more than 1 million deaths since 1999, it said.
The report was published Tuesday by the bipartisan U.K.
Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioids Trafficking.