The silver lining, if there could ever be such a thing when it comes to a fatal drug interaction, is that the death of Angels’ pitcher Tyler Skaggs could bring more attention to the issue of opioids.

After all, big-league athletes are not supposed to die. Not when they are in full youth. And yet Skaggs did. He had fentanyl and oxycodone along with alcohol in his system, an autopsy found.

At a time like this, people search desperately for the why. To think that such a death could have no meaning would be unbearable.

It is a fact of life — though unfair — that the death of a celebrity gathers more attention than the demise of someone who isn’t known by the general public.

In this light, it would not be surprising to Skaggs’ death bring fresh urgency to a scourge that claimed 47,000 American lives in 2017.