Friedman J, et al. - By using prescription drug monitoring program data from 2011 through 2015, researchers examined the extent to which the observed social differences of the current opioid epidemic could be driven by differential prescribing of opioids by race/ethnicity and income via the health care system, as well as comparing the trends seen with prescription opioids vs stimulants and benzodiazepines. The race/ethnicity and income pattern of overdoses of opioids reflected prescription rates, implying that a discrepancy in exposure to opioids via the health care system may have created large, observed racial/ethnic differences in the opioid epidemic. Controlled drugs had a higher likelihood of being prescribed to people living in majority-white areas across drug categories. These differences may have protected nonwhite communities from the brunt of the prescription opioid epidemic, but they also indicate differences in treatment and access to all drugs.