Japan Soaring Overdose Deaths Cut US Life Expectancy for 2nd Year Two-thirds of last year's drug deaths — about 42,000 — involved opioids, a category that includes heroin, methadone, prescription pain pills like OxyContin, and fentanyl By Mike Stobbe • Published December 21, 2017 • Updated on December 21, 2017 at 10:42 am