Share Share Share Pin Opioid Crisis in the United States did not begin in a cartel lab or on a smuggling route. It grew first inside a legal medical market that rewarded high-volume prescribing, aggressive sales tactics, and weak supervision. By the time illicit fentanyl took over, the demand, dependency, and commercial logic were already in place. In 2023, about 105,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, with nearly 80,000 of those deaths involving opioids. CDC data also shows synthetic opi...