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Episode details

World Service,11 May 2016,5 mins

The Inquiry: What's Killing White American Women?

The Essential

Available for over a year

Advances in everything from medicine to nutrition to economic growth mean death rates have been falling around the world for years. But for less educated white American women, that trend has reversed. One reason is a rise in drug overdoses. In this excerpt from The Inquiry, Dr Andrew Kolodny of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing explains how a slick 1990s marketing campaign led to the US's worst ever drug addiction epidemic. (Photo: Prescription Oxycodone pain pills lie on display. Credit: Getty Images)

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