Even if you were talking about a decrease in healthy lifespan, Opioids do not generally cause a person to transition from healthy to unhealthy (they are prescribed to treat a preexisting condition).
Sources:
Personally I would bet on obesity being a bigger contributor to declining lifespans than opioids, but I'm just showing that raw numbers of deaths cannot automatically disprove the hypothesis that a decline in lifespan is due to opioids.
[0] http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2018/05/lawler-us-deaths-j...
EDIT: I suppose it could be lowered a bit more if all those who died were those who would otherwise have lived longest.
That would average out in a population size of 40k
For example if rich people were culturally more likely to use heroin than poor people, then overdoses would lower the life expectancy more than you would expect, because rich people (when not overdosing on heroin) have better access to medical care and hence longer life expectancy.
Quote: "Experts pointed then to the "diseases of despair" — drug overdoses, suicides and alcoholism — as well as small increases in deaths from heart disease, strokes and diabetes."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fuele...
Many of these people die young. There are more years of life lost before age 75 due to suicide / overdose in the US than diabetes
> Opioids do not generally cause a person to transition from healthy to unhealthy (they are prescribed to treat a preexisting condition).
This is a very naive view.
People start taking opioids in many different paths, legal and illegal. Some lie to get the prescription, no one can prove you don't have back pain. Some get a prescription after surgery and get addicted that week.
The super informative and well written book to read is Dreamland: https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidem...