Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences.  It is a disorder of the brain’s reward system which arises through transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms and develops over time from chronically high levels of exposure to an addictive stimulus (food, drug, behavioral and high-thrill cultural activities, etc.).

Examples of drug and behavioral addictions include alcoholism, marijuana addiction, amphetamine addiction, cocaine addiction, nicotine addiction, opioid addiction, food addiction, video game addiction, gambling addiction, and sexual addiction. 

According to the CDC, drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States.

• From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose.
• Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid.
• In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999.
• On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.