In light of President Donald Trump declaring the Opioid epidemic a national public health emergency, Dr. Matthew Stanley with the Avera Behavioral Health Center in Sioux Falls has this reaction.

“According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control released last year---overdoses from people abusing Opioids reached an all time high. 64 thousand deaths make it one of the leading if not the leading cause of death for adults under the age of 50. This really is a crisis in our country.”

Dr. Stanley says there are two aspects of the Opioid epidemic.

“One is people that are prescribed Opioids continuously until they become dependent on the medicine often inadvertently. There are also those seeking Opioids for the feeling it’s giving them. That’s more of a law enforcement and legislative aspect of this problem.’

Since 1999, the number of American deaths involving Opioids has quadrupled.

During his White House announcement about the Opioid epidemic last week President Trump said nobody has seen anything like what is going on now.

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