Drug overdose deaths set a record last year.

More than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017, a “staggering” figure that public health officials say is fueled by a rise in the use of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Deaths caused by those drugs increased by 45 percent last year over 2016 and experts now say that limiting opioid prescriptions isn’t going to ease the crisis. See The New York Times for more information. Related: Drug overdoses and the rising number of suicides are lowering our life expectancy.