A new projection of opioid overdose death rates suggests that even if there is steady progress in reducing prescription narcotic abuse across the country, the number of fatal overdoses — which reached 47,600 in 2017 — will rise sharply in the coming years.

No matter how you slice it, the nation’s opioid epidemic “is not finished growing,” said decision scientist Jagpreet Chhatwal of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the research. Full story