With the nation experiencing a record number of drug overdoses, former U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy has taken the Biden administration to task for not doing enough to confront the overdose and addiction crises—and has called on the president to announce a “coordinated federal strategy to address it. Reviewing the first year of Biden’s presidency in a commentary in The Hill, Kennedy fault the administration for describing the small incremental changes as progress, and urges the administration to invoke every power of the executive branch to reverse the trend of fatal overdoses. A new strategy should focus on several areas: widen the availability of overdose response resources; shut down illicit fentanyl mills; provide insurance parity for mental health and substance use, and increase access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Finally, Kennedy says Biden should show leadership at the federal level to guide policies and programs for state and local governments.
Meanwhile, NPR looks at new studies that add to a growing body of evidence confirming that drug treatment works—and that most people who experience alcohol and drug addiction not only survive but eventually recover and go on to live full and healthy lives. Studies show that life after addiction is not only possible, it’s the norm: Roughly 22.3 million Americans—or more than 9 percent of adults—living in recovery after some form of substance use disorder. Unfortunately, most Americans only see the destructive side of addiction, rather than those who make it through rehab to rebuild their lives. Both available data and live experience contradict a widespread misperception that substance use disorder is a permanent and often fatal affliction, when in fact people who use hare drugs for long periods do typically recover.
And finally, AARP reports there has been an alarming increase in fatal overdoses among older adults, with nearly 80,000 Americans age 55 and older dying due to an opioid overdose between 1999 and 2019. During this time, the number of those in this age group who had died spiked from just over 500 to more than 10,000. The surge in fatalities was due to a number of factors, including an increase in the number of opioids used to treat chronic medical conditions—such as arthritis and cancer, among others—most commonly diagnosed in this demographic, as well as a lack of screening for substance misuse among older adults.