the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) reported in its publication <u>Interstate Variations In The Use Of Narcotics</u>, Second Edition, following an investigation of 25 states, that it found that New York and Louisiana had the highest amount of narcotic use within Workers’ Compensation cases.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>   A July 2014 report by the CDC indicates that each day 46 people die from an overdose of prescription painkillers in the United States.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a>  Finally, as reported by the CDC in 2007, the costs of opioid abuse totaled “about $55.7 billion with 46% attributable to workplace costs (i.e. lost productivity), 45% to healthcare costs (i.e. abuse treatment), and 9% to criminal justice costs.” <a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a>  Even the introduction to the Non-Acute Pain Guidelines indicates that the Guidelines were drafted in response to the dramatic increase in use of opioids to treat chronic non-cancer pain.  The significant cost of opioid medications is not only borne by carriers, but also by claimants.