We Must Do More in 2018

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released the final numbers on overdose deaths in 2016. The astonishing level of lives lost is heartbreaking and, unfortunately, not surprising as our country continues to wrestle with the public health emergency of addiction and overdose. 

Last year in the United States of America, 63,632 people died as a result of a drug overdose - nearly 175 people per day, mostly to opioids. The addiction crisis reached virtually every demographic, hitting 45-54-year-olds every bit as hard as 25-34-year-olds. Its geographic reach is extraordinary, beyond epidemic proportions, with death rates soaring above the national average in states as far apart as Maine, Florida, Nevada, Louisiana and Ohio. The impact of the disease of addiction is so profound that it is lowering our nation’s life expectancy.

Far from improving, the growth rate of this public health emergency is accelerating at a blistering pace. The CDC’s numbers for 2017—which right now only go through May—already indicate that 2017 will be worse than 2016.

Losing people at an alarmingly increasing rate to a treatable disease is unacceptable in a developed nation.

That’s why we’ve been calling on policy makers to act. The struggling individuals and families of our country deserve access to quality substance use disorder treatment. To turn the tide of this ongoing tragedy, our county needs funds to expand treatment and research to improve treatment outcomes. We need health insurers and the government to pay for effective treatment that is evidence-based with appropriate levels and lengths of care for this chronic illness. We also need ongoing education for communities and families that addiction is a chronic but treatable disease. We need to end the fraud in the addiction treatment sector. We need to encourage health insurers to pay for alternative pain therapies. We need to retrain doctors to manage chronic pain differently and to recognize the signs of substance use disorder. We need commitment to prevention education and early interventions at schools.

This epidemic will not resolve itself. If society fails to take appropriate action, these devastating trends will continue to accelerate. The number of deaths that are reflected in the CDC’s report – and the aftershocks that are devastating America’s families and communities – are as unnecessary as they are unacceptable.

We must do more. We must act now.