The opioid and fentanyl epidemics have touched every one of our lives. Addiction does not discriminate. So let's take a look at the problem from not only the addiction and user perspective but from a medical and neurological point of view as well.

Dr. Lewis Nelson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, all in Newark, NJ. He is also a Senior Consultant to the New Jersey Poison Information & Education System. He is board-certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology (human poisoning and overdose), and addiction medicine.

Dr. Nelson serves as a long-standing consultant to CDC, DHS, and FDA on issues related to opioid use and misuse, drug safety, and health policy. 

He sits down with Erica to discuss the origins of the opioid crisis and how it has changed over the past 25 years, how tolerance develops and grows over time, fast pain fixes, and the CDC's proposed new guidelines to remove the recommended dosage caps on opioids for acute and chronic pain