Why are so many Americans dying from opiate overdoses?

Why are so many Americans dying from opiate overdoses? Across the United States, families and communities have been devastated by opiate addiction. A patient breaks her arm and receives a powerful pain reliever such as Oxy-Contin, then ends up addicted to heroin or even fentanyl.

In this lesson, students use exponential decay and rational functions to understand why addicted patients seek more and stronger opioids to alleviate their pain. Students discuss the role that various parties played in creating the crisis and ways they can help to solve it.

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