“More people have died from overdoses in this country in the last two decades than the combined number of Americans who have died in combat operations in every war America has taken part in,” said David Luckey, a senior international and defense researcher at RAND. “If that’s not a reason to bring people together to come up with ideas on how to resolve this problem, I don’t know what is.”
Overdose deaths surpassed Firearm and Motor Vehicle deaths around 2007.
Synthetic overdose deaths (think fentanyl, mostly) surpassed Firearm and Motor Vehicle deaths in 2019.