Doctors are fueling an opioid crisis in the UK by over-prescribing the powerful painkillers, as data shows deaths have risen by almost 50 per cent.
Governments should treat the opioid epidemic as a public health crisis urgently, a report released today warned.
Up until now, the epidemic has largely focused on US - where 400,000 people have died of overdoses between 1999 and 2017.
But data shows that the abuse problem is booming in other leading economies too, including the UK.
The drugs are causing an more than an estimated 2,000 deaths every year, according to the data.
Increasing availability and over prescription of the highly addictive drug is at the root of the problem, officials said, as well as illicit trade.
Doctors are fueling an opioid crisis in the UK by over-prescribing the powerful painkillers as deaths have risen by almost 50 per cent in England and Wales.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who pulled the data together, said: 'The United States is by no means alone in facing this crisis.
'Opioid over-prescribing is considered one of the most important root causes of the crisis.
'The influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers on pain management has been considered significant, by conducting marketing campaigns targeted mainly at physicians and patients, downplaying the problematic effect of opioids.'
Opioids, or opiates, including Codeine, Morphine and Methadone, are normally prescribed by doctors to treat pain associated with certain medical conditions or following surgery.
They can be very effective short-term. However, when taken for longer than prescribed, or when abused, they can cause severe harm.
The OECD referred to a 'surge in overdose deaths' and a growing burden on health and social care services by increasing hospitalisation.
Of all countries for which data are available, the average of opioid-related deaths has increased by more than 20 per cent in 2011-2016.
Opiates are drugs that can relieve severe pain; they do so by depressing the central nervous system. Opiate drugs are derived from opium, the chemical that originates in the poppy plant.
Opioids work in the same way as the brain chemicals endorphins, acting on receptors within the brain that are in the region responsible for pain and pleasure.
Opioids mimic natural endorphins are released to fight pain and to induce feelings of pleasure, but they are much more powerful.
These intense feelings of pleasure that can hijack the reward centre in the brain of some people, making them want to take the drug again to replicate the experience.
Taking opioids repeatedly can result in a tolerance to the effects. So, rather than recreating the intense feelings of pleasure, many individuals find that the experience is far less enjoyable than it once was, leading to a cycle of abuse.
The rise has been most pronounced in the US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and England and Wales, the Paris-based policy forum
