https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180627075618.htm

The study, published today in Public Health Reports, the journal of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, found that potentially 70,000 opioid-related overdose deaths were not included in national opioid-related mortality estimates since 1999 because coroners and medical examiners did not specify the drug that contributed to the cause of death when completing the death certificates.

"Proper allocation of resources for the opioid epidemic depends on understanding the magnitude of the problem," said lead author Jeanine M. Buchanich, Ph.D., research associate professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Biostatistics. "Incomplete death certificate reporting hampers the efforts of lawmakers, treatment specialists and public health officials. And the large differences we found between states in the completeness of opioid-related overdose mortality reporting makes it more difficult to identify geographic regions most at risk."