Lessons from the 1970s for today's US opioid crisis
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It has been 40 years since Purdue Pharma released OxyContin in the USA and—through its aggressive marketing, lobbying, and legal strategies—launched an epidemic of addiction, overdoses, and deaths among patients taking the prescription opioid. This large increase in prescription opioid addiction was exploited by illicit drug producers and traffickers and led to escalating consumption of heroin, then to fentanyl, and to the current polydrug use involving opioids, stimulants, and sedatives.
Total annual fatal overdoses in the USA peaked at 108 000 in 2022. In 2025 there were almost 70 000 drug overdose deaths. This remains a disturbing number of deaths considering that before OxyContin's release US deaths from overdoses averaged 5000 a year. The opioid crisis has left a trail of tears and an ongoing debate about why governmental policy responses were ineffective.
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