This is how lawmakers plan to end the opioid crisis (CNN)

Tuesday Mar 20th, 2018

Fresh on the heels of President Donald Trump's plan to tackle the opioid crisis, House lawmakers this week plan to introduce more than two dozen bills aimed at ending the epidemic, ranging from better access to treatment programs to exploring opioid alternatives for pain. 

The bills will be the focus of two days of hearings on Wednesday and Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee with the focus on public health and prevention initiatives.

"I would argue that we on the front lines already know what is working," said Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City Health Commissioner. "There needs to be far more funding, and that funding needs to come directly to local jurisdictions like ours that are the hardest hit and have already done a lot when it comes to our overdose prevention treatment work." She said most of the bills being proposed are already things Baltimore is doing at the local level, it's just that "what we need is a commitment to sustain ongoing resources to treat the disease of addiction."

 

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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.”

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