We want to change focus on the present opioid epidemic: Propoxyphene ( DXP) was on the US market more than 40 years before Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Fentanyl were available - which were at sales 1996 and 1999

After a number of years – uncertain how many – there is an opioid epidemic in the United States and in recent years, the total numbers of deaths caused by different opiate preparations, have risen sharply since many years and the number of fatal poisoning is almost unimaginable.

Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016. (On Aug 15^th 2018, New York Times informed that the number of fatalities during the year 2017 is around 72,000 persons. Nearly two-thirds of these ODs (66%) involved a prescriptions or illicit opioid according to CDC – Centers for Disease Control Prevention http://Bit.ly/2uWnWtF

It is very difficult to say when this opioid epidemic was begun, but it is considered by most reviewers that the substances Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Fentanyl underlie the worst opiate epidemic ever in US history.

The total umbers of deadly poisons now exceed more than 70,000 persons - since 2017 - and although some attempts have been made to stop this opioid epidemic, some researchers estimate that in the next ten years as many as half a million persons can be poisoned to death.

Currently, it is primarily considered the cause of death for men under the age of 50 to be just opiate related deaths. And for the second consecutive year, the American average age for men has fallen because of this

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We wrote two doctoral theses about DXP and we have studied the substance for more than 25 years

For the last 25 years, we have studied one opioid that has been banned in the United States since 2010, namely Dextro-(Propoxyphene) DXP, brands in US were Darvon and Darvocet. One of the most important results of our two doctoral theses – presented in 2000 and 2001 – was that in 1992-1999 about 200 persons per year were poisoned to death due to DXP preparation in Sweden.

DXP was synthesized in 1953 by the drug company Eli Lilly and was approved to the US market 1957. The drug was immediately high appreciated and for many years Eli Lilly´s greatest medical success.

We have since the year 2003 cooperated with INCB (The International Narcotic Control Board) in Vienna and thanks to them we were able to present consumption figures of DXP since 1980. There are no official figures for the years 1957 – 1979 on the consumption of DXP. During the years 1957 -1979 we have estimated these consumption figures as well

Thanks to these data and the consumption data of the drugs Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Fentanyl, it shows that DXP was on the US market more than 40 years before the other three preparations were available.

Consumption data in next text; Consumption of six “Principal Narcotic Drugs” from 1956 - 2016 (Main source Nabil Katkhouda, INCB, 2012 - 2019).

From these facts, we conclude that DXP would be a more serious cause that the other three drugs for the opiate crisis today – and many years to come – pervades the America society.