According to a recent forecast, as many as 650,000 people in the United States will die from opioid overdoses over the next 10 years. Some 50,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016. When that figure is compared to the 10,917 people in the United States who died from all types of drug overdoses at the peak of the crack epidemic in 1988, it’s clear that—as is now well understood—the United States is in the middle of a deadly drug crisis.