Opinion: Why I believe the Warren-Cummings CARE Act can stop people like me from becoming opioid overdose statistics
As someone who was once caught in the black-hole traction of an addiction to heroin, I’ve listened closely to the rhetoric about what has become an epidemic of overdose deaths in the U.S. Despite the urgency of dealing with this scourge, it feels like the most progress we’ve made in the last few years is to talk about it.
That’s not to say that having this conversation is inconsequential: We needed to bring opioid addiction into the light. But with 400,000 overdose deaths in the last 20 years and more than 70,000 in the last year alone, it’s time to take dramatic action to save lives and make recovery attainable for anyone who wants it.
The opioid pandemic is in), which provides funding and guidelines for advancing addiction medicine — we need more than marketing to turn the tide.
