More than 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2014 - the highest recorded in one year, US officials say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its report released on Friday that said that overdose deaths jumped 7% from just one year earlier.
“The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths,” it said.
The report found significant increases in overdoses in 14 states across the country. All regions of the US - including the northeast and the south - were affected.
The spike in deaths has coincided with a rapid rise in the abuse of opioid-based prescription painkillers such as oxycontin and hydrocodone, and CDC said 61% of the deaths involved some type of opioid, including heroin, according to BBC News.
Police departments across the country have begun equipping officers with naloxone, a fact-acting overdose antidote, in an effort to save lives.
