By Ken Blackwell, The Stream - In my decades of public service, I’ve never seen anything like the opioid epidemic ravaging our nation right now. Last year, nearly 50,000 Americans died from overdoses involving opioids. That was an increase of nearly 7,000 from 2016 — which was itself an increase of about 9,000 from 2015. The numbers have been climbing for nearly two decades now, thanks in large part to the introduction of a synthetic drug called fentanyl....