The Tennessean profiled the opioid epidemic in Tennessee over the last couple decades as addiction continues to impact millions of Americans.
Here are 12 key points:
1. Despite medical professionals labeling oxycodone as highly addictive in the 1960s, the FDA approved OxyContin for prescription use in 1995.
2. A year later, the American Pain Society said providers should label pain as a fifth vital sign.
3. In Tennessee, 5 percent of people who received publicly funded addiction treatment were abusing prescription pain relievers in 1999. That year, 342 residents died from overdoses.
4. In 2000, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services reported prescription opioids ranked as the top drug among residents who received publicly funded treatment at detox facilities and halfway houses for recovering addicts.
5. Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma launched a marketing campaign for Oxycontin when the drug received approval in 1995. In 2003, the FDA issued the company a warning letter for its "misleading advertisements," according to The Tennessean.
6. The FDA started holding various meetings to strategize on ways to combat rising opioid use in 2008.
7. In 2011, there were 1,022 opioid overdose deaths in Tennessee and the state ranked as the number two state for opioid consumptions in 2012.
8. In 2012, the death toll hit 1,094 opioid overdoses in Tennessee.
9. In 2013, state officials required providers to report all diagnoses of drug-dependent babies as the state recorded 912 of these types of births that year.
10. Tennessee officials allowed physicians to prescribe naloxone, an antidote to narcotic overdoses, in July 2014.
11. A 2014 Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services report found 55 percent of painkiller abusers obtained the drugs from a friend or relative with a prescription.
12. In 2015, state providers wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions.