What is the definition of acute opiate intoxication and how can it be the cause of death?

See below: Taking too much of an opiate can cause repiratory depression, stop breathing by decreasing the natural drive to breath located in the brain. Symptoms preceding this may be stupor, can't arouse the person, very tiny or "pinpoint pupils" if suspected call 911 immediately..

High on opiates: Acute means happening right now. Opiates is a family of drugs that include morphine, demerol, (meperidine hydrochloride) heroin, and dilaudid. These are powerful drugs that alter your perception of your environment and your state of mind. They are used legally for the control of continued severe pain. Intoxication means more than the usual amount that is normally used has been injected or taken orally.

Depresses breathing: Opioids act to depress all functions of the brain, but in very high doses, especially in people with little tolerance, who haven't been using the drug for a long time, it causes coma with gradual depression of breathing, ultimately causing breathing to stop, followed by cardiac arrest. This can be reversed by a drug called Naloxone (narcan) which can be given in a nasal spray.