The dangers of heroin and other synthetic opioid painkillers are well known. For over a decade, America has been waging war against the opioid epidemic, until COVID-19 the worst public health crisis in the country. However, over the last several years, America’s dangerous relationship with opioids has taken an even more deadly turn with the rise in use and misuse of the powerful drug fentanyl. As the numbers of non-fatal and fatal drug overdoses increase annually, spiking with the most drug-related overdoses in a 12-month period during the coronavirus pandemic ending in May 2020 (the latest available statistics), the main culprit taking the lives of thousands of Americans is no longer heroin or prescription pills like OxyContin, but rather fentanyl. [...]

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues throughout the United States, and the country deals with the civil unrest and racial inequality issues boiling over after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we must deal with these issues head-on without forgetting about another public health epidemic that continues to plague America: The opioid crisis.