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The fed's new 'war on drugs': Obama proposes $1.1 billion to expand care for opioid addicts
By Melinda Carstensen
Published April 14, 2016
Amid a prescription opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic largely fueled by overprescribing among doctors, President Obama has suggested allocating $1.1 billion to expand affected individuals’ access to care— a proposal that has garnered bipartisan support. Although some experts question whether throwing money at the issue will be enough, many believe that, if used properly, the funding has the potential to save lives.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses between 2000 and 2014. Opioid overdose deaths, including those from heroin, hit record highs in 2014 and saw a 14 percent increase in only one year.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who has worked as an emergency room doctor in one of the nation’s opioid addiction hotspots, said the proposal signals a shift in thinking about addiction as an individual’s problem best controlled with law enforcement, to a chronic medical condition like diabetes or heart disease that can be prevented and treated.
“That science has been around for decades, and society’s perception has caught up,” Wen told FoxNews.com.
“A pill for every pain”
In 2014, 259 million opioids— or enough for every American adult— were prescribed, according to the CDC. The most commonly prescribed opioid pain relievers were natural or semi-synthetic opioids like oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are involved in the most overdose deaths among opioids. The CDC recorded 813 more deaths, a 9 percent increase, from these types of opioids in 2014 than 2013.
Over the last decade, overall deaths resulting from opioid abuse and abuse of illegal narcotics like heroin have quadrupled.
A study published in the November 2015 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested overdoses from drugs like opioids is one of the main reasons why deaths of middle-age white Americans are rising while the overall death rate in the United States has fallen.
“There are people in suburban and rural areas who are dying of overdose,” Wen said. “Unfortunately, it’s taken this level of people dying to get us to where we are, but I do think a sea of change is occurring, and we are seeing how overdose kills.”
Although multiple factors have contributed to the epidemic, Wen and other experts have argued that a culture of “a pill for every pain” has played a key role.
cont with many graphics http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/...illion-to-expand-care-for-opioid-addicts.html
By Melinda Carstensen
Published April 14, 2016
Amid a prescription opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic largely fueled by overprescribing among doctors, President Obama has suggested allocating $1.1 billion to expand affected individuals’ access to care— a proposal that has garnered bipartisan support. Although some experts question whether throwing money at the issue will be enough, many believe that, if used properly, the funding has the potential to save lives.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses between 2000 and 2014. Opioid overdose deaths, including those from heroin, hit record highs in 2014 and saw a 14 percent increase in only one year.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who has worked as an emergency room doctor in one of the nation’s opioid addiction hotspots, said the proposal signals a shift in thinking about addiction as an individual’s problem best controlled with law enforcement, to a chronic medical condition like diabetes or heart disease that can be prevented and treated.
“That science has been around for decades, and society’s perception has caught up,” Wen told FoxNews.com.
“A pill for every pain”
In 2014, 259 million opioids— or enough for every American adult— were prescribed, according to the CDC. The most commonly prescribed opioid pain relievers were natural or semi-synthetic opioids like oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are involved in the most overdose deaths among opioids. The CDC recorded 813 more deaths, a 9 percent increase, from these types of opioids in 2014 than 2013.
Over the last decade, overall deaths resulting from opioid abuse and abuse of illegal narcotics like heroin have quadrupled.
A study published in the November 2015 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested overdoses from drugs like opioids is one of the main reasons why deaths of middle-age white Americans are rising while the overall death rate in the United States has fallen.
“There are people in suburban and rural areas who are dying of overdose,” Wen said. “Unfortunately, it’s taken this level of people dying to get us to where we are, but I do think a sea of change is occurring, and we are seeing how overdose kills.”
Although multiple factors have contributed to the epidemic, Wen and other experts have argued that a culture of “a pill for every pain” has played a key role.
cont with many graphics http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/...illion-to-expand-care-for-opioid-addicts.html
