It is no secret that America is having a serious problem with opioids. While the US Government looks to hold court on every subject from the conflict in Ukraine to discussions over the gas & oil industry, the opioid problem is still bubbling in the background. Those who are fighting the battle in treatment centers around the US have, for some time, been waiting for a more definitive statement to come out from the White House. What is going to be done to try and combat the rise of opioid addiction in America?
Finally, it looks like something might be done. An upcoming plan put forward by the Biden administration will look to target two key areas: treatment, and trafficking. This new drug control strategy is being rolled out across a series of months if it is given the go-ahead. The plan will look to try and control the opioid problem within the country and look to help manage the problematic trafficking of illegal substance.
In an interview regarding the process, Rahul Gupta, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said about the latest decision: “If it remains easier to get illicit drugs in America than treatment, we’ll never be able to bend the curve in overdoses,”
The agreement is supposed to come into place sometime before June 2022 and will be part of a wider health rollout in the coming years. The goal will look to try and help people to find treatment for substance abuse as opposed to throwing them in jail as a criminal.
Federal agencies will be involved in the development of this new plan, alongside the Department of Justice, the Treasury, the Homeland Security department, and the Education department. The hope is for a cross-department program to be developed that can finally work towards handling the US opioid crisis.
Will this new plan be enough?
The hope is that this new plan will help to turn the tide in a battle that it has long felt America has been losing. The aim of the program is also to try and combat the massive drug money trade that exists in America. They intend to, as Gupta said, “…attack them (criminals) where it hurts the most – and that is their wallets.”
For Americans tired of not seeing enough progress on this vital and serious problem for American society, this can only be good news for the future. This is not the only steps being taken to try and combat the problem in recent times, though: permanent classification of drugs like fentanyl bases have been brought in. So, too, has been to try and push fentanyl-based substances to a Schedule 1 categorization.
It is vital to see more work being done and more progress being made in what has been a long-standing problem for American citizens. If more can be done to change things for the better, then it can only benefit American society. The opioid crisis has gone on for long enough – the time for action is here.
Finally, it looks like a nationwide approach is being taken to solving the issue.
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