The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

Due to factors such as overprescribing common, medicinally prescribed pain-subduing drugs as well as an increasing supply of fentanyl, deaths resulting in drug overdoses, more specifically, opioid related deaths in the United States have seen a substantial rise in the past few decades. However, as of lately, the trend has flipped.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable decline in deaths resulting from opioid abuse. This includes opioids overall, as fentanyl overdose deaths continue to rise.

“This has been an issue that has seemed to engulf our country and leave many healthcare and policy professionals puzzled as to how to stop it. But lately it seems as if things are starting to turn around a bit into a much better direction,” said Dr. Bryan N. Feldman, a family medicine doctor in Columbus, OH who also volunteers as the head doctor at a rehabilitation center called Maryhaven.

Arguments have been made as to whether the overall opioid overdose regression is directly related to policiesthat President Donald Trump has implemented during his term in office or if it is due to previous leadership policies and additional uncontrollable factors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), from 1999 to 2017, the United States observed a record number of opioid-related deaths. In fact, in 2017, more than 702,000 people died due to drug related overdoses. In just one year, the number decreased by thousands to 67,367 overdoses.

This decline in overdoses was initially observed in 2017, shortly after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, leading many to view him as the saving grace of this crisis.

In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency and began applying an all-of-Government approach to the epidemic.

Also in 2017, the Trump administration lead an initiative to increase border protection, leading to thousands of pounds of opioids like fentanyl being seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs.

In 2018, his office implemented the Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse, a program that aimed to increasing knowledge of and potentially reduce the main, driving forces behind the nationwide epidemic.

In addition to these initiatives, Trump mentioned that opioid crisis “cannot be solved through government action alone” (White House 2018). In order to get more support, Trump facilitated partnerships with several large medically and non-medically focused companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Red Cross, Cigna, and CVS Health.

However, some might say that this action was not as transparent and genuine as it may seem and that it was simply an effort to further Trump’s pro-business agenda while using the epidemic to mask the reality of his office’s intentions.

There is little to no evidence currently as to the direct effectiveness of Trump’s policy implementations while in office thus far. In fact, some of Trump’s actions like cutting Obamacare and Medicaid as well as promoting the death penalty for drug dealers could easily make matters worse.

Nevertheless, general opioid overdoses continue to fall and which is difficult to be skeptical of, regardless of the circumstances.

Yet, the moment Trump began taking sole credit for this miracle movement resulting in thousands of lives saved, it became much easier to second guess the validity of his statements.

“I’ve heard him [Trump] talking about the crisis during press conferences and bragging about what he’s done but I’ve never seen him actually take action. I don’t think he’s doing nearly enough to stop this from getting worse,” said Micki Reisman, a cognitive neuroscience focused psychology and biology major at the University of Denver.

But if President Trump didn’t tackle this issue all by himself, then who else could have?

No one, single person brought the number of opioid overdoses down in the US. Hundreds of individuals and organizations worked together prior to President Trump’s appointment to office to create a multifaceted plan to reduce the unfathomably large quantity of overdoses.

In 2016, prior to President Trump’s election, the CDC implemented a set of guidelines aiming to regulate prescription opioid painkillers. This was seen as a huge step towards combatting the epidemic as opioid prescription opioid painkillers are responsible for a large portion of total opioid overdoses.

Also implemented prior to President Trump’s time in office, in 2016, federal and state lawmakers created the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, with the goal of addressing opioid addictions in the U.S.

Mentioned earlier, Obama care, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), may have contributed to the recent decline in opioid related deaths before trump recalled it. A 2017 Harvard Medical School research study showed that 220,000 people suffering from some sort of opioid addiction would no longer have insurance to pay their largely unaffordable treatment bills.

Without coverage, these uninsured recovering addicts are likely search for cheaper alternatives to deal with their addiction and withdraws. However, these cheaper alternatives are often obtained via the blackmarket and are unregulated and unsafe.

“The drugs we use to help ween our patients off of opioids are not cheap. It is very difficult to see so many people turned away after reaching out for help. For a lot of people, treatment programs like Maryhaven are their last chance to beat their addiction.”

Dr. Feldman also brought up several state-specific initiatives attempting to reduce opioid related overdoses. Specifically, in Ohio, The Ohio State University, with the help of federal grants, is taking charge in an initiativeto lower opioid related deaths in hard-hit communities. The program aims to reduce the statewide overdose death rate by 40% in 3 years and has already seen a 21.4% statewide drop.

State-specific programs have proved to be extremely effective as it allows law-makers to focus on specific areas and gain local insight. It will likely be the popular method used moving forward.

In the end, the focus should be on the fact that we were able to unite as a nation and tackle a problem gravely affecting so many people, loved ones and strangers, and that opioid related overdose deaths as a whole are down. Who made it happen is not important. The plan to rid the US of opioid addiction is in motion, everyone is at the helm, and it’s all hands on deck until we get there.

Sources

CQ Magazine. “An Ambitious Goal for Opioid Overdose Study .” University Libraries Login Page, CQ Press, 19 Dec. 2019, library.cqpress.com.du.idm.oclc.org/cqweekly/weeklyreport116-000005785592.

“Ending America’s Opioid Crisis.” The White House, The United States Government, 1 Mar. 2018, http://www.whitehouse.gov/opioids/.

Lopez. “Drug Overdose Deaths Have Fallen. But Trump Can’t Take Credit.” Vox, Vox, 5 Feb. 2020, http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/4/21115481/trump-state-of-the-union-2020-overdose-deaths-opioid-epidemic.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Overdose Death Rates.” NIDA, 10 Mar. 2020, http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

“Products – Data Briefs – Number 356 – January 2020.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 Jan. 2020, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db356.htm.

“A Year of Historic Action to Combat the Opioid Crisis.” The White House, The United States Government, 24 Oct. 2018, http://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/year-historic-action-combat-opioid-crisis/.