Opioid epidemic: an American crisis

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It starts with powerful painkillers that are prescribed to treat common pain. It balloons into addiction and leads to thousands of overdose deaths across the country.

Every year, 200 million prescriptions fro drugs like oxycontin and vicodin are written every single year. The National Survey of Drug Use and Health shows hundreds of millions of Americans are using or misusing persciption pain pills.

Since 2000, overdose deaths have trippled and opioid abuse now kills more than 100 Americans a day. And when the prescription run out, addicts turn to a cheaper, more available and much more dangerous high, like heroin.

Newsrooms like ours are telling stories daily of overdoses. FOX 2 is working to help the overdose epidemic with an Opiod Crisis special.

For families who have a loved one struggling with addiction, Families Against Narcotics offers Narcan classes that teach you how to administer and reverse the effects of an overdose. You can sign up for a class by clicking here.

Braden's support group, Tomorrow A Better Day, meets the first and third Thursday of every month at St. Ronald's Church on 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. You can get more information on Tomorrow A Better Day here.

For more information on Families Against Narcotics and the resources they offer, visit www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org.

Narcan giving heroin overdose victims second chance

WATCH THE SPECIAL HERE: