About 64,000 people die from drug overdoses each year, equating to at least 115 lives lost per day. According to an article written by Vox, “The total drug overdose deaths were higher than the number of deaths linked to guns, car crashes, or HIV/AIDS during any single year in America.â€
In addition to the needless loss of life and the negative effects opiate addictions have in communities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that $78.5 billion dollars are spent each year to handle prescription opioid use. The expenditure includes healthcare, lost productivity, criminal justice involvement, and rehabilitation treatment.
Under the Trump administration, the opioid epidemic has been declared a public emergency. Trump signed the Support for Patients and Communities Act, a collective of bipartisan legislation that is tough on crime and focuses on reducing overdoses and illicit drug usage.
Trump’s plan can be broken down into three categories: implementation of punitive policies regarding drug offenses, reduction of the number of painkillers prescribed, and propositions for drug treatments.
The bipartisan legislation does show promise. Given the willful negligence of pharmaceutical manufacturers and subsequent overprescription of painkillers by medical professionals, it becomes indicative that the lack of accountability is one of the top contributing factors that lead to the opioid crisis.
The Support Act takes preventative measures at a federal level, as well as, in the medical field environment. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is allowed to levy higher consequences against pharmaceutical companies for probable misconduct. Pharmacists are to be better educated on spotting suspicious prescriptions.
However, the implementation of punitive policies, like longer, harsher sentences and the use of the death penalty in certain cases, go against the advice of drug policy and public health experts.
Sarah Wakeman is one of those experts. She is the medical director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Use Disorder Initiative, and although she recognized the plausible benefits Trump’s plan could bring, she cautioned against harsher punishments for drug crimes, stating, “We have already tried the experiment of mandatory minimums and harsh sentencing practices for drug charges during prior epidemics and the end result was surging prison populations and worsened racial disparities in the criminal justice system, not improved public health outcomes.â€
While the Trump administration is tackling the opioid issue on the federal level, a small rural community in Snohomish County in Western Washington is taking a more humanistic approach to the epidemic by treating it as a natural disaster.
In short, Snohomish County created a Multi-Agency Coordination group dedicated to creating long and short-term goals with plans of direct action to treat their community’s opioid problem.
Some of their plans include distributing needle cleanup kits, creating programs to train schoolteachers to recognize trauma and addiction, providing transportation for those in drug treatment programs.
Alongside this, they plan on sending teams of police officers and social workers to homeless camps to provide those suffering from addiction basic necessities and transportation to rehabilitation programs.
This model has been successful for the community members of Snohomish County, as they were able to help hundreds find housing and drug treatment.
Although the Trump administration’s bipartisan legislation has potential to reduce the opioid epidemic, replacing the punitive measures with a model similar to Snohomish County’s would be a better alternative, as research has shown time and time again that punitive measures do not work.
Hopefully with time, other areas will follow similarly to Snohomish County, as they not only aim to treat the addition, but also tend to the human by treating them with respect that typically isn’t given to someone with addiction. Humanization of those facing addiction and rehabilitation should be the focus of treating the opioid epidemic, along with legislation against pharmaceutical corporations, rather than increasing punitive measures.
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