We know now that pop superstar Prince died from an overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid pain reliever 50 times more potent than heroin, because he was famous and his death was of global interest.

But as the national opioid epidemic rages on, one of its problems is the lack of a common standard for reporting opioid-related deaths. That’s important not only in terms of individual death investigations, but for steering public policy and resources to best address this important public health issue.

Death certificates are the province of state governments, and there is a wide array of practice among the states.

And in states like Pennsylvania, there is variance county-by-county on specifying overdose deaths on death certificates.

In Connecticut, as reported recently by National Public Radio, there is a centralized system under which the state chief medical examiner specifies on the death certificate the actual drug involved in the death — whether the culprit is a particular prescription drug, heroin or a combination.

Part of the reason that the opioid epidemic is so difficult to fight is that most opioids are legal prescription painkillers with an important medical purpose. Their development and use is a significant advancement in fighting debilitating pain and improving patients’ quality of life.

So the question of just what drugs are involved in overdoses is a crucial one. A wave of fatal heroin overdoses mandates one kind of response, whereas a spike in prescription opioid doses would require another, in terms of public health policy and law enforcement.

The Legislature and the state Department of Health should require coroners to specify drugs that are at play when they issue a death certificate resulting from an overdose. Doing so could help tailor a response that could result in fewer overdose deaths.