Pain Management and Opioids Guide for Consumers
Understand Pain
What Kind of Pain Do You Have?
Talk with Your Doctor about Pain
Self-Care for Pain Management
Understand Opioids
A Pain Medication
Side Effects and Risks
How to Store and Dispose
Since 1999, over 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose. In 2017, 130 Americans died each day from an opioid overdose (CDC data). The opioid crisis is a national public health emergency. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but we use 80 percent of the world’s opioids.
Minnesota has seen a rise in opioid and heroin addiction
| Minnesota | National | |
| Costs to the US Economy | $31.8 billion from 1999 to 2015. | $504 billion in 2016. |
| Opioid Overdoses & Deaths | 422 overdose deaths in 2017 and 46% involved prescription opioids 2,037 emergency room visits for survived overdoses in 2017. 15 to 34-year olds visited the most emergency room in 2017-2017. |
47,000+ deaths in 2017 and 36% involved prescription opioids. 11.5 million people misused opioid medications in 2016. |
| Prescriptions | 3 million+ prescriptions handed out in 2017. 749 prescription drug arrests in 2017. | Prescription opioids increased almost 4 times, but Americans did not report lower pain levels (from 1999 to 2016). 3 out of 4 people who used heroin misused opioids first |
| Treatment | 10,332 treatment admissions in 2016. 89% capacity in Opioid Treatment Program in June 2017 | 2,000,000+ people have an opioid use disorder 20% of people get treatment |
In Minnesota, 2,833 children were removed from their home due to a parent’s drug use in 2016. That is a 128 percent increase since 2012, and it’s mostly due to opioid use. Watch videos and read more information on the opioid crisis.
Understanding the Opioid Epidemic. A one-hour PBS documentary that traces the causes behind the unprecedented growth in the use of prescription opioids and the devastating impact these drugs are having in every part of America. The documentary is broken into six videos.