A bipartisan congressional commission is urging the Biden administration to adopt a strong leadership role to fight the nationwide addiction and overdose epidemic, as part of a new multi-pronged strategy. With overdose fatalities at record levels—more than 100,000 over the past year alone—the commission’s report says the anti-drug effort requires Cabinet-level leadership, including reinstating the White House “drug czar” and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to a cabinet post in order to direct a far-reaching federal effort. The strategy should include law enforcement as well as expanding evidence-based treatment and establishing pathways for addicts to re-enter society and rebuild their lives. The Rosenthal Center has long advocated such measures, including reinstating the ONDCP and drug czar positions to the cabinet to oversee and coordinate sprawling state and federal programs. Whether President Biden eventually will act on these recommendations is uncertain, as he has so far shown little interest in significantly expanding the government’s role in fighting addiction, boosting funding, or reforming the structures that are currently in place to confront the addiction and overdose crises.
At the same time, what the Biden administration has spoken out about is the importance of advancing harm reduction programs, which have received much media attention recently with the opening last year in New York City of the country’s first safe injection sites, otherwise known as overdose prevention centers. This happened after a long legal battle with federal authorities, but now it appears that the Justice Department is signaling a change in policy that would allow these types of facilities to flourish. The Department says it is currently evaluating such sites and looking into what appropriate guardrails would be needed to safeguard public health—a drastic change in tone after vigorously fighting harm reduction programs in the past. Safe sites have existed for decades in Canada and Europe, and while these facilities are critical to saving lives they fail when it comes to engaging substance users and encouraging them to enter treatment. If safe sites are to expand on a national level we need to ensure they not only reduce harm but also become a bridge to life-changing treatment