2024-05-23
48 分钟Most epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 years. To find out why, it’s time to ask some uncomfortable questions. (Part one of a two-part series.)
Several years back, we published a two part series called the Opioid Tragedy.
We interviewed physicians and economists, substance abuse counselors, and recovering addicts, and we all talked about how bad the opioid epidemic was back then.
About 70,000 individuals died from a drug overdose just in 2017.
That's more Americans than were ever killed by guns, car crashes, or HIV AIDS in a single year.
We also discussed a variety of solutions, some of them straight up medical solutions.
Opiate use disorder is treatable.
It's not a death sentence.
It's a medical condition, and it's treatable.
And we also talked about harm reduction.
That's the idea that when it is not practical to outright prohibit something that's dangerous, it's worth finding a compromise.
In the case of a dangerous opioid like fentanyl, that might mean treating people with a less addictive opioid like buprenorphine.
In a later episode, we discussed harm reduction with Rahul Gupta, director of national drug policy in the Biden administration.
This administration has been very clear.
For the first time in the history of the United States federal government, we have made harm reduction the central tenet of how we need to move forward.
Gupta told us about government funded needle exchanges and the distribution of naloxone, a drug that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.
There have been other developments in the fight against opioid overdose deaths, including an intensive law enforcement campaign to cut down on drug trafficking.
Also, billions of dollars of settlement money has started to flow from the opioid manufacturers, distributors, and consultants who did such a good job of selling their products.
So with all that money and all that law enforcement and with harm reduction and medical treatments, you might think we had the problem surrounded.
You would certainly think that opioid deaths would be falling, but theyre not.
Its horrible.