The American opioid epidemic has defied all efforts to contain it, and the number of overdose deaths continues to grow. President Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October and said "we have to do something about it" in his State of the Union address, but his administration has yet to pursue a specific strategy.
We asked 30 experts to think big, but realistically, about solutions. Imagine you had $100 billion to spend over five years - a little less than current federal domestic H.I.V./AIDS spending - to address the opioid crisis. Where would you put that money?
Here, in aggregate, is what our panel said:
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The consensus of the experts was that any effective strategy should include funding for four major areas: treatment, harm reduction, and both demand- and supply-focused solutions. The answer above is an average, as our panelists disagreed about the best way to divide up the money they were considering.
Our panel spent more money on treatment programs than anything else. (Over two million Americans are estimated to have a problem with opioids.) It was the top priority for more than 20 of the experts.
