In some cases, bad health may have precipitated the withdrawal from the labour force while in others bad health may have developed later on. In any case, bad health has become an obstacle for many outside the labour force to take up a job or even look for one. Not only the death toll from opioid overdoses has become a major public health issue but Krueger (2017) found some link between the increase in opioid prescriptions and the decline in labour force participation.