For the first time on record, the odds of dying from an opioid overdose in the U.S. are now greater than those of dying in a car crash.
Let that sink in for a minute.
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The grim finding came last week from the National Safety Council, which analyzed preventable injury and fatality statistics from 2017.
Read more: More likely to die from opioid overdose in US than car accident
And then four days after that report, a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open said that the more money pharmaceutical companies spent marketing opioids to doctors, the more prescriptions doctors wrote for those drugs -- and the more fatal opioid overdoses followed.
Read more -- Study: More overdose deaths follow heavier opioid marketing
The study found that for every 1,000 people living in an area, opioid prescribing rates increased 182 percent, and prescription opioid overdose deaths increased by 9 percent for every $5.29 a pharmaceutical company spent on perks such as lunches and trips for doctors.
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So, what can we do? This has been a lot to digest, between these two reports. Dive into the data, familiarize yourself with the numbers and visit our resource center if you or someone you know needs help.