Everyone has their own vices, some of which are more addicting and troubling than others. For hundreds of thousands of Americans, their personal vice is drug addiction, but far too often this is treated solely as a personal choice. Nobody wants to be addicted to heroin just like nobody wants to be stricken with chronic pain, and while the two conditions are certainly different, it’s time we start viewing addiction through the lens of chronic disease and treat addiction for the mental health issue it is.
That’s the new focus of the federal government, as it has announced $30 million in grants for services that will serve to encourage harm reduction and make illicit drug use safer. These grants will be used for things like syringe exchanges and naloxone to assist in the event of an overdose. It’s not a perfect solution to the opioid epidemic, but it’s a step in the right direction for a country that lost more than 100,000 people between April 2020 and May 2021 to drug overdoses.
“That’s the equivalent of an American dying every five minutes,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in an exclusive broadcast interview.
What’s Driving Overdose Deaths?
Fentanyl is the biggest reason behind the boom in overdose deaths in America. It is 50 times more powerful than heroin and is extremely cheap to produce. It’s used as a cutting agent to extend a product or enhance fake prescription pills, and according to the most recent data, it’s responsible for nearly 70 percent of all overdose deaths. And while that’s obviously extremely concerning, it also means that a good number of these overdose deaths are preventable.
Harm reduction will obviously have its detractors, but it’s clear that completely stopping illicit drug use is impossible. Just like sex education and sexual protection devices have helped to curb unwanted pregnancies better than abstinence only education, those in power believe that if we can’t completely stop drug use, we need to make it safer for users so than it doesn’t end in a fatal overdose.
Oftentimes politics can get pulled into the equation, but Dr. Gupta said drug overdoses should not be made into a partisan issue.
“When somebody’s suffering from substance use disorder or going through an overdose, whether fatal or nonfatal, they’re not Republicans, they’re not Democrats. They’re not living in red states or blue states, or rich or poor, or black or white … they’re human beings that we need to help support,” said Dr. Gupta.
And to help provide this support, proponents believe we need to start approaching addiction and substance abuse not as a moral decision, but as a chronic relapsing brain disease.
“It’s no different than many of the other chronic diseases in so many aspects like diabetes and hypertension,” said Dr. Gupta.
Other changes that the Biden administration believes can help curb the opioid crisis include:
- Creating more syringe exchanges, as those who use these programs are five times more likely to enter drug treatment and three times more likely to stop using drugs than those who don’t use the program.
- People who use fentanyl test strips are more likely to modify their drug use by using less, using slower or making sure naloxone is available.
Hopefully we can work to help get overdose deaths under control, and that includes looking at how we punish drug users in the criminal justice system. Nobody is saying there shouldn’t be any punishment, but we need to focus more on treating the addiction than punishing the action, because punishment alone isn’t the most effective option. If you or someone you know are battling a drug issue or are facing drug charges in Minnesota, reach out to Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm for assistance.
