In 2011, the CDC, reported that drug overdose deaths had become the leading cause of injury death in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle accidents.  Further, in 2015, 52,000 deaths resulted from the use of heroin – the highest number ever recorded in U.S. history.  Unfortunately, the 2016 overdose rate exceeded this number by 22% with 64,000 Americans dying from overdose. Texas ranks 44^th in the nation for the prevalence of drug overdose death rates and 33^rd for the number of opioid pain relievers prescribed.  Between the years 1999 and 2010, the overdose death rate in Texas increased by 78%! Since 2010, the number of heroin-related deaths in Texas steadily increased from 260 to 530 deaths, and deaths attributed to synthetic opioids (mainly Fentanyl) rose from 156 to 250.