What killed more people in recent years — those struggling under urban overpasses or snug in their suburban beds — than guns did at the early-1990s peak in U.S. homicides?

It’s not a hard question: opioids. They killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record. But the rate at which opioid deaths had added up, and their negative pull on the overall life expectancy in rich, advanced America is alarming, especially when charted.