Week 9 Capstone The opioid crisis has been mentioned nationwide. In the state of Oklahoma, there has been a trial where the judge ordered Johnson and Johnson to pay the state for over 570 million dollars. Cleveland County district judge, Thad Balkman, stated, “The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma. It must be abated immediately” (Tulsa World, 2019). Opioid addiction is increasing in the state of Oklahoma, and the death toll is rising due to narcotic and heroin use. “Among the more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids) with nearly 30,000 overdoses” (Pearlstein, 2017). Addiction to narcotics is not what the patients plan on and without the proper education and monitoring, the patients will harm themselves unknowingly. This epidemic has become worse in the state of Oklahoma, and the nurses of Oklahoma can be apart of the change to save our citizens.