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Generate More Financial Intelligence to Combat Opioid Epidemic: Sources

By Valentina Pasquali

Bankers and other financial services professionals have a role to play in tackling the epidemic of prescription-based opioid abuse in the United States, current and former law enforcement officials say. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, primary care providers and other medical professionals in 2014 wrote more than 240 million prescriptions for opioids, a class of controlled narcotics that includes hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl and other morphine derivatives. More than 25,000 Americans died last year from abusing opioids and thousands of others turned to using heroin once their prescriptions ran out, according to the agency, fueling complaints of...

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