The publication of the document, which acts as a comprehensive roadmap for the administration’s approach to drug policy in the federal government, comes as the nation continues to experience record high drug overdose deaths. According to the latest provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, approximately 106,854 people died from drug overdoses during the 12-month period ending November 2021. Director of the National Drug Control Service of White House, Dr. Rahul Gupta, whose agency is monitoring the implementation of the strategy, said in an interview with reporters before the document was presented to Congress that he would give priority to harm reduction, access to treatment for substance use disorders and disrupt drug trafficking organizations and increase the collection of data related to drug policy.
“For too many years, the overdose crisis has unraveled the very social fabric of our nation and destroyed the lives and livelihoods of Americans. Biden’s inaugural national drug control strategy is implementing its unity program, a call to action to tackle the overdose epidemic. He admits that this is not a red state problem or a blue state problem. That is America’s problem, “Gupta said.
Gupta maintains that the newly discovered drug control strategy is the first to prioritize harm reduction in the nation’s history. He stressed that easier access to harm reduction treatments, such as the antidote naloxone in opioid overdoses, is essential.
“The most important action we can take to save lives right now is to have naloxone in the hands of everyone who needs it without fear or judgment, especially today, when 3 out of 4 deaths from overdose are they come from opioids, “Gupta said, adding that harm reduction efforts have bilateral support.
Opioids continue to cause drug overdose deaths in the United States. Synthetic opioids – including fentanyl – have been involved in about two-thirds of drug overdose deaths in the past year. While heroin-related deaths have declined in recent months, deaths involving synthetic opioids or psychostimulants have doubled in the last two years.
Gupta told CNN’s Kate Baldwin in “At This Hour” on Thursday that existing harm reduction policies “fail people.”
“We fail to meet them where they are, and each of these overdoses, from an opioid perspective, is reversible. But today we have so many inconsistent policies, barriers when you overdose. Your zip code determines whether you live or die, and that just shouldn’t happen, “he said.
Asked how long it would take to assess whether the strategy was successful, Gupta stressed the urgency of the moment, telling Baldwin, “I think every minute counts, whether we succeed or not, because an American dies every five minutes.”
“President Biden is convinced that this is an urgent priority and we must act with a sense of urgency, because it is not a matter of days, weeks or years. It’s a matter of every minute we lose Americans, “he continued. .
Gupta said on Wednesday that the US president’s strategy would “double treatment intake for populations most at risk of death from overdose and provide universal access to opioid disorders by 2025.”
Asked how the federal government will work to expand access to treatment, a senior administration official said: “Treatment with a low threshold or low barrier will be the key to expanding access to treatment, especially in conditions where we know people are exposed to high risk”.
Speaking of the strategy’s “renewed focus” on destroying drug-related criminal networks, Gupta called on Congress to adopt a presidential budget proposal that would increase funding for drug use and US customs and border protection. He also said the strategy would work to sanction more drug traffickers.
“We need to hit drug traffickers where it hurts them the most, and that is their portfolio. Through this strategy, we will work for more than three times the number of sanctioned drug traffickers and increase the security of our borders,” he said.
The King of Drugs also stressed the need to increase the collection of data related to drug policy.
“For example, we know that one of the best predictors of a fatal overdose is a previous non-fatal overdose, but we do not have a consistent and timely measure for non-fatal overdoses in the United States,” Gupta said, adding that it limits agencies’ capabilities. to identify emerging trends and effectively target aspects of the drug supply chain.
CNN’s Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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