The epidemic lurking in the shadow of the pandemic

Twenty-seven hundred dead through July. Not coronavirus. Opioids, according to Tucson.com.  In the first seven months of 2020, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported over 2,700 newly suspected opioid overdose deaths in Arizona. What makes this figure more startling is that there were just over 3,800 suspected opioid deaths in the preceding 30 months. The problem is escalating, and rapidly.  While navigating a pandemic, the epidemic that is opioid abuse cannot be neglected. That epidemic is fueled by illicit fentanyl — the most dangerous drug on the streets of the nation.