Since 1999, nearly one million Americans have died from a drug overdose, with a majority of those deaths driven by synthetic opioids. Indeed, for two decades, the burden of the overdose crisis has yet to ease despite enduring harm reduction tactics and prosecutors going after drug dealers in attempts to hold someone criminally accountable. A new study published earlier this month in the American Journal of Public Health potentially highlights a chilling unintended consequence of what happens when police seize opioids with the intent to curb use: opioid overdoses don't fall — they rise.
