In 2016, around 64,000 people in the United States died of an overdose—more deaths than from gun homicides or traffic accidents. Overdose is now the leading cause of death for people under 50 in this country.
Addressing this crisis will require focus and collaboration—especially under our current administration. Despite President Trump's public commitment to “liberate” Americans from the “scourge of drug addiction,” his inaction has been criticized by members of his own opioid-epidemic commission. Only a handful of their proposals have been adopted, the 90-day public-health emergency was squandered, and the crisis is wildly underfunded. The only place where Trump has excelled is in elevating stigmatizing views that drug dependency is a moral failing, and that tough-on-crime policies are the only solution. Most terrifying are his positive remarks about the murderous assault on drug users by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, and his suggestion at a White House opioids summit that drug dealers be executed.
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