opioids

FILE - In this June 5, 2019 file photo former critical care doctor William Husel, center, pleads not guilty to murder charges while appearing with defense attorney Richard Blake, right, in Franklin County Court in Columbus, Ohio. Nusel, facing 25 counts of murder for his role in the deaths of hospital patients said in a defamation lawsuit filed against the hospital system he worked for that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy in providing end-of-life care. Husel filed the lawsuit Thursday, Dec. 26 in Franklin County, which includes Ohio's capital city of Columbus.(AP Photo/Kantele Franko, File)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, palliative care nurse Madeleine Mukantagara, 56, left, prays with Vestine Uwizeyimana, 22, right, who has spinal degenerative disease and is taking oral liquid morphine for her pain, as she visits to check on her health at her home in the village of Bushekeli, near Kibogora, in western Rwanda. While people in rich countries are dying from overuse of prescription painkillers, people in Rwanda and other poor countries are suffering from a lack of them, but Rwanda has come up with a solution to its pain crisis - it's morphine, which costs just pennies to produce and is delivered to households across the country by public health workers. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

FILE - In this July 17, 2019, file photo, a pack of Targin opioid pills made by Mundipharma is photographed in Sydney, Australia. Australia’s drug regulator has fined a pharmaceutical company owned by the billionaire Sackler family over what it dubbed misleading advertising for one of its opioid painkillers, as the country grapples with surging rates of opioid prescriptions and related deaths. Mundipharma Australia, the international affiliate of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, was ordered to pay penalties of 302,400 Australian dollars ($209,000) by the Therapeutic Goods Administration over its promotion of the opioid Targin, the drug regulator said in a statement. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

In this Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 photo, pedestrians pass at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, N.Y. The hospital adopted the Hudson Valley Interlink Analytic System earlier this year, which tracks drug overdoses in New York. The system is among a number of surveillance systems being adopted around the country by police, government agencies and community groups. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, left, talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FILE - This Thursday, May 3, 2018 file photo shows bottles of gabapentin at a pharmacy in San Francisco. On Thursday, Dec. 18, 2019, U.S. health regulators are warning that popular nervous system medications known generically as gabapentin and pregabalin can cause dangerous breathing problems when combined with opioids and certain other drugs. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah and introduced as evidence at a trial shows fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills collected during an investigation. Accidental overdoses contribute to 90 percent of all U.S. opioid-related deaths. Rising use of illicitly manufactured and highly potent synthetic opioids including fentanyl has likely contributed to the unintentional death rate, which surged nine-fold between 2000 and 2017, the study found. (U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah via AP, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2019, file photo, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., speaks during a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington. Cummings died from complications of longtime health challenges, his office said in a statement on Oct. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)