Drug overdose has been called the worst addiction epidemic in American history.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 70,000 Americans die from drug overdose each year, making it a leading cause of death in the country. And a majority of those cases involve a prescription opioid.

On average, 130 Americans die of opioid overdose every day.

Official figures show that in 2018, 10.3 million Americans misused prescription opioids, including 808,000 who used heroin.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, from 1999 to 2017, more than 702,000 people died from a drug overdose. There's been a sharp increase since 2014 and deaths involving opioids grew at an even faster rate. Low-income groups, especially blue-collar whites, had been disproportionately impacted.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a research in 2019, which showed pre-mature deaths increased in 48 out of 50 U.S. states between 2010 and 2017; the Midwest and the South were the worst hit areas and opioid overdose was a key contributor.

Meanwhile, life expectancy in the U.S. had been dropping in recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that in 2017, the average life expectancy in America was 78.6, the lowest among comparable developed countries.