Public Health Innovator Leana Wen on Challenging Addiction Stigma

Monday Mar 28th, 2016

After years of opposing common-sense policies or simply ignoring the issue, politicians in Washington and many state governments are finally supporting public health solutions to the challenges posed by opioid drug abuse, instead of relying solely on criminal law enforcement. Unfortunately, this political momentum is built on thousands of tragedies.

The number of opioid fatal drug overdoses in the United States has quadrupled in recent years while the number of prescriptions written for opioid drugs also increased fourfold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35400-public-health-innovator-leana-w...

Related Stories

Lead poisoning cases fell 19 percent in Baltimore last year, even as more children tested for exposure (Baltimore Sun)

The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

Read the entire story.

Azar Unveils Plan to Help Pregnant Patients Quit Opioids (MedPage Today)

States will get help from the federal government integrating services for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid patients with opioid use disorder under a pilot program announced Tuesday by Health and Hu

Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

Read the entire story.

Visit the Newsroom