The US Opioid Crisis

[BmorePat87]

So the issue of the opioid crisis in the US has come up a lot recently and Trump has started to address how he wants to handle it, starting with a law and order approach. His own commission, headed by Christie, has urged him to declare the epidemic an emergency (which Trump and Price have rejected).

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/08/trump-opioid-epidemic-heroin-241416

Quote:President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed his administration would beat the opioid epidemic by beefing up law enforcement and strengthening security on the southern border to stop illegal drugs from entering the country.

Trump, joined in Bedminster, New Jersey, by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and other administration officials, emphasized a tough law-and-order approach, rather than new treatment or social programs, as the White House's primary strategy for halting an epidemic that kills 142 Americans every day, according to federal statistics.

The administration also backed the GOP's Obamacare repeal-and-replace proposal that the CBO estimated would slash Medicaid — the largest payer of behavioral health services — by $800 billion. Advocates have stressed that such a proposal would almost certainly result in less access to treatment for people with addiction.

About 1.2 million people with substance abuse disorders got insurance through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, according to a study published in Health Affairs. It also has paid for 35 percent to 50 percent of all medication-assisted treatment administered to help fight opioid addiction, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health.

Trump said of opioid use: “The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place. If they don't start, they won't have a problem. If they do start, it's awfully tough to get off. So if we can keep them from going on and maybe by talking to youth and telling them: No good, really bad for you in every way. But if they don’t start, it will never be a problem.”

This does not really mesh with how people are starting to use opioids, however. While 80% of opioid users in the 60's first used heroin, today the trend is completely different. Most users start with prescription drugs. 86% of those using injection drug between 2002-2012 first used prescription drugs. I think most people have a friend or family member who had an issue with prescription drugs. It can be tough when the drug is given to you by a doctor for your health.

The commission has also called on Trump to waive limits on the number of medicaid recipients who can receive residential addiction treatment. So far the rhetoric has been aimed at a law enforcement approach rather than a treatment approach.


Thoughts on how this issue should be approached? I'm in the boat of approaching the root cause first.