Summary
Opioids have significant adverse effects highlighted by the large number of patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and the increasing number of overdose deaths in the United States and elsewhere. In just the 12-month period ending in November 2021, more than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdose. Around 66% of these deaths involved illicit synthetic opioids like fentanyl (approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine), which is the primary driver of the opioid epidemic today. Many of the opioid overdose deaths are attributed to fentanyl mixed with
