The Twin Missions of StopDrugDeath.com are:
        (1) To shed light on the severity of the epidemic of overdose deaths from prescription opioids and heroin, to promote understanding of the causes of the epidemic, and to help in diminishing this scourge by promoting government and private efforts aimed at prevention, detection, and treatment of prescription drug and heroin dependency;
        (2) To point out specific failings of the US Food and Drug Administration, the single agency which could have prevented tens of thousands of American deaths, in the hopes that FDA leadership will begin to treat the epidemic with the seriousness it deserves. 

The Scope of the Scourge    
     Between 1999 and 2014, 250,000 Americans died of overdoses of prescription opioids and heroin.  In that same period, annual deaths from overdoses of prescription opioids increased from 4,030 to 18,893. 
     By Nov., 2015, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that a quarter of Americans had a family member or close friend who had been addicted to prescription opioids, and 9% had a family member or close friend who had died from a prescription opioid overdose.  
     As the prescription opioid epidemic intensified, heroin use increased, and from 2007 to 2014 heroin deaths rose five-fold to 10,574.      
     The CDC has referred to this as the "worst drug epidemic in U.S. history."

Navigating the Website
     This website has two major sections, "The Epidemic" and "FDA." 
     "The Epidemic" has four subsections; "FDA" has eight subsections. 
     The major sections and auxiliary pages can be reached by clicking the relevant tabs at the top of each Website page.  For each of the two major sections, the subsections can be reached by clicking the tabs just under the banner at the top of the page.