Opioids help people manage chronic pain — and that’s a good thing. What went wrong?

The dangers of fentanyl use cannot be overstated, and there’s no question that the pandemic caused a troubling upward trend in addiction disorders, and a recent study predicts an additional 1.2 million drug overdose deaths in the next decade, with people in the Black community bearing the brunt of the opioid epidemic.

As the opioid crisis rages on, Dr. Paul Christo, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wants to spread awareness and help people understand the risks of synthetic opioids and offer advice for talking with kids about the dangers of illegal drug use.