11 Opioid Crisis Fast Facts As Trump Holds Press Briefing

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he will hold a briefing on the opioid crisis on Tuesday. He will be giving the briefing from his vacation at his private golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Opioid-use in the United States has been an ongoing problem, spiking in the past few years. Trump put together an opioid commission and last month they recommended the president declare a national emergency under either the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.

Here are some facts about the opioid crisis in the U.S.:

1. Opioids and opiates are technically different versions of painkillers but are often referred to in the same way. Opiates are derived naturally from the narcotic opium, like prescription drugs like Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin or street drugs like heroin. Opioids once referred to the synthetic version of opiates, like methadone and fentanyl, but now refer commonly to the class of drug as a whole.

ALSO READ: Opioid Crisis: How The US Can Contain And Reverse The Epidemic

2. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last year, more than 650,000 opioid prescriptions are filled every day.

3. From 1998 to 2008, overdose deaths have quadrupled, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).

4. Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death among American that less than 50 years old, according to the New York Times last week.

5. On average 580 people will use heroin on any given day in the U.S., according to the CDC. Heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl have now outpaced common prescription opiates for overdose deaths.

6. In 2015, around 8.5 million people in the U.S. are estimated to have misused opioid pain killers, according to Vox, Tuesday. Doctors and addiction specialists are beginning to shy away from using the word addiction, because of its stigmatizing history, and prefer the term substance use disorder.

7. On average 78 people die daily because of drug overdoses in the U.S., according to the CDC.

8. The states in 2015 with the highest rates of death due to drug overdoses were West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio and Rhode Island, according to the CDC. West Virginia saw an overdose death rate of around 41 people per 100,000.

9. The prescribing rates for prescription opioids for adolescents and young adults nearly doubled from 1994 to 2007, according to ASAM.

READ: 5 Side-Effects Of Opioids As Prescriptions Drop But Still Remain Very High

10. The U.S. uses more opioids than every other country, according to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board. The standard daily usage for every 1 million Americans is 50,000 doses.

11. Prescription opioid abuse costs the U.S. $55 billion each year in health and social costs, according to the CDC.