HealthTop StoryUS

Opioids report: New strategy and a Cabinet-level leader

Opioids

The Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking said in a 70-page report released Tuesday to Congress, President Joe Biden, and the American people, that we must protect our most precious resource, “American lives.” Vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl, are driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids has the United States firmly in its grasp, and the Biden Administration needs to act, according to the report. As reported by the AP:

The global coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed the American opioid epidemic for the last two years, but recent news is grim on the growing crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. needs a nimble, multipronged strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering overdose epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission advises.

FILE – Signs are displayed at a tent during a health event on June 26, 2021, in Charleston, W.Va. Volunteers at the tent passed free doses of naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose by helping the person breathe again. The U.S. needs a more nimble strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering opioid epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission said Tuesday. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)

With vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids awaits after the COVID-19 pandemic finally recedes, a shift that public health experts expect in the months ahead.

“This is one of our most pressing national security, law enforcement and public health challenges, and we must do more as a nation and a government to protect our most precious resource — American lives,” the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking said in a 70-page report released Tuesday to Congress, President Joe Biden, and the American people.

The report envisions a dynamic strategy. It would rely on law enforcement and diplomacy to shut down sources of chemicals used to make synthetic opioids. It would offer treatment and support for people who become addicted, creating pathways that can lead back to productive lives. And it would invest in research to better understand addiction’s grip on the human brain and to develop treatments for opioid use disorder.

The global coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed the American opioid epidemic for the last two years, but recent news that overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in one year caught the public’s attention. Politically, federal legislation to address the opioid crisis won support across the partisan divide during both the Obama and Trump administrations.

Rep. David Trone, D-Md., a co-chair of the panel that produced the report, said he believes that support is still there, and that the issue appeals to Biden’s pragmatic side. “The president has been crystal clear,” Trone said. “These are two major issues in America: addiction and mental health.”

The U.S. government’s record is also clear. It has been waging a losing “war on drugs” for decades.

Drug
FILE – A protester gathers containers that look like OxyContin bottles at an anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington on April 5, 2019. A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

The stakes are much higher now with the widespread availability of fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It can be baked into illicit pills made to look like prescription painkillers or anti-anxiety medicines. The chemical raw materials are produced mainly in China. Criminal networks in Mexico control the production and shipment to the U.S.

Federal anti-drug strategy traditionally emphasized law enforcement and long prison sentences. But that came to be seen as tainted by racial bias and counter-productive because drug use is treatable. The value of treatment has recently gained recognition with anti-addiction medicines in wide use alongside older strategies like support groups.

The report endorsed both law enforcement and treatment, working in sync with one another.

“Through its work, the commission came to recognize the impossibility of reducing the availability of illegal synthetic opioids through efforts focused on supply alone,” the report said.

“Real progress can come only by pairing illicit synthetic opioid supply disruption with decreasing the domestic U.S. demand for these drugs,” it added.

The report recommends what it calls five “pillars” for government action:

Purdue
FILE – In this Aug. 9, 2021, file photo, fake pill bottles with messages about OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y. A federal bankruptcy judge is expected to rule Wednesday, Sept. 1, on whether to accept a settlement between Purdue Pharma, the states and thousands of local governments over an opioid crisis that has killed a half-million Americans over the last two decades. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

— Elevating the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to act as the nerve center for far-flung federal efforts and restoring Cabinet rank to its director.

— Disrupting the supply of drugs through better coordinated law enforcement actions.

— Reducing the demand for illicit drugs through treatment and by efforts to mitigate the harm to people addicted. Treatment programs should follow science-based “best practices.”

— Using diplomacy to enlist help from other governments in cutting off the supply of chemicals that criminal networks use to manufacture fentanyl.

— Developing surveillance and data analysis tools to spot new trends in illicit drug use before they morph into major problems for society.

Participating as non-voting members in the commission’s work were high-level executive branch officials, including representatives from law enforcement, the departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security, the intelligence community, and the White House. Administration officials said Biden has already issued two executive orders to counter fentanyl trafficking and called on Congress to pass his $41 billion request to address the overdose epidemic.

Debra Cross, director of operations for Provoking Hope, an addiction recovery center in McMinnville, Ore., displays an emergency kit used to treat opioid overdose as she stands inside an ambulance converted into a mobile needle-exchange unit. McMinnville and thousands of other towns across the United States that were wracked by the opioid crisis are on the precipice of receiving billions of dollars in the second-biggest legal settlement in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

In prepared statements, Republican commission members stressed the law enforcement response. “We must redouble our efforts to secure the border against illegal trafficking by targeting Mexican cartels flooding our streets with illicit opioids and force China’s hand to crackdown on their pharmaceutical industry supplying cartels with the base compounds used to manufacture synthetic opioids,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.

Trone said it’s going to take cooperation from both political parties. “We have to take this toxic atmosphere in Washington and move past it,” he said. “Because 100,000 people, that’s husbands, sisters, mothers, fathers. As a country, we are better than that.”

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

For more health news

Previous Article
Olympic ratings low for NBC, several factors contributing
Next Article
‘Power of the Dog’ tops Oscars with 12; ‘Dune’ nabs 10

How useful was this article?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this article.

Latest News

Menu