What Must We Do About the Opioid Deaths Epidemic?

The CDC projects we will have 500,000 overdose deaths within the next decade. We are now at nearly 100 deaths 24/7/365. Do the math.

The Trump administration has declared the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths a public health emergency. This is an important first step.

STAT forecast: Opioids could kill nearly 500,000 Americans in the next decade

Trump has appointed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to lead the effort. However, Christie may still face impeachment proceedings resulting from ‘BridgeGate’. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the lead agency in this National Emergency, has yet to publish a strategy and a plan with a budget that could realistically stem the exponential tide of deaths. In the meantime, Congress has been preoccupied with crippling Obamacare, that will markedly reduce access to and increase the cost of healthcare for average Americans, which makes absolutely no sense in the midst of this unprecedented public health emergency.

Although I have not been a supporter of decriminalization, the prospect of 500,000 deaths of primarily young people in a decade is terrifying and warrants extreme counter measures. Such a level of excess mortality is not sustainable and inevitably will have major repercussions on the future of the United States.

There is no mystery about what must be done. The challenge will be the rapidity with which we can carry out intervention and treatment. We must start from the perspective that drug addiction is a public health issue, not a legal matter for the courts. If you recall the early days of the HIV epidemic we were also hung up on the notion that the victims’ behaviors somehow justified their fate, significantly delaying much-needed government intervention. It appears we are at the same crossroads with this epidemic.

In 2001 Portugal instituted a national plan to deal with their drug overdose epidemic. The drugs remained illegal. But drug addicts caught with them meant a small fine and a referral to a treatment program — not a criminal hearing leading to jail time and a criminal record. It has been successful in reducing addiction, overdose deaths, and co-morbidities, such as HIV and other infectious diseases. Despite these radical changes it took almost 10 years before the tide turned.

However, Portugal had a head start — universal health care.

#overdosedeaths
#opioidepidemic
#drugaddiction
#chrischristie