Giving Compass' Take:

· With reported overdoses taking the lives of about 50,000 Americans, the opioid epidemic has led the United States to declare a public health emergency. Ryan Golden at Smart Cities Dive explains the widespread impact of this crisis and what is being done to address it. 

· What has led to rise in opioid drug abuse? How can communities and philanthropists work together to help curb this issue? 

· Here's more on the current state of the opioid epidemic. 

On Oct. 26, 2017, President Donald Trump confirmed what experts had long-observed in many U.S. communities: opioid use had reached epidemic levels, and the epidemic merited the declaration of a public health emergency.

In 2017, opioid overdoses claimed the lives of more than 49,000 Americans, per statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that about 115 overdose deaths occur per day, and the epidemic itself is still far from over.

The widespread impact of opioid addiction means no community entity, from schools, sports teams to places of worship, is exempt — and that includes employers. Opioid addiction forced an estimated 20% of men to leave the workforce, according to a 2017 paper by a Princeton University economist. Others are tasked with taking care of family members and neighbors affected by the epidemic.

Read the full article about the opioid epidemic by Ryan Golden at Smart Cities Dive.