The CDC report showed some declines in a total of 12 states, including many in New England, a part of the country where the overdose crisis has been more acute. (Photo: Shutterstock)

If the opioid crisis in America wasn't enough of a hot-button issue before, it may get even more important in the upcoming mid-term elections. That's due, in part, to preliminary numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that show 2017 surpassed 2016 as the worst year ever for drug overdose deaths in America.

According to the results, nearly 200 people a day died of overdoses last year, or more than 72,000 people. Two-thirds of those deaths, both last year and in 2016 are linked to opioids.

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The report further states that the rise in deaths is linked to fentanyl, which has overtaken heroin in illegal drug markets.

This past week, President Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring a federal lawsuit against opioid makers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Some states and municipalities have already brought cases against manufacturers with the federal government joining some of those as of last April.

“I'd also like to ask you to bring a major lawsuit against the drug companies on opioids,” Trump told Sessions during a Cabinet meeting last Thursday. “Some states have done it. But I'd like a lawsuit to be brought against these companies that are really sending opioids at a level that it shouldn't be happening.”

The CDC report also showed some declines in a total of 12 states, including many in New England, a part of the country where the overdose crisis has been more acute. Vermont, for example saw its overdose death rate drop by nearly seven percent last year and Rhode Island saw a more than three percent decline.

On the other side of the coin, Nebraska, according to the report, saw its drug overdoses rise by 33 percent and Nebraska and New Jersey rose by 24 percent.

President Trump also lashed out Thursday at China and Mexico for illegal opioids entering the US from the two countries.