By: Nikhil Nalam
The opioid crisis – one of the most devastating public health issues the United States has faced in the 21st century – is worse than ever.
The issue has taken several forms over the past twenty years, but its newest chapter, beginning around 2015, has been especially fatal. Characterized by a massive increase in fentanyl overdoses, an analgesic fifty to a hundred times more potent than morphine, the opioid crisis’s fourth wave kills over twice as many people as road accidents every year.
There were over 110,000 deaths caused by overdoses just last year, and this alarming figure isn’t getting any smaller. Thus, we’re compelled to wonder: what is the government doing about this?
Furthermore, powdered fentanyl is often sold as a counterfeit drug due to its resemblance to many substances. Being cheaper and more addictive than its counterparts allows dealers to cut costs and ensure customers return wanting more. The alarming rise in polysubstance overdose deaths reflects the catastrophic harm caused by unintended fentanyl consumption.
So, now that we understand the problem, we’re brought back to our original question: what is the government doing? The Trump administration, which was in power when the fentanyl crisis blew up, was accused by many of handling the situation poorly. While the administration did successfully push for slower fentanyl exports and increased regulation in China, it also severely cut funding to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), hampering federal policymaking.
The problem, now the responsibility of the Biden government, has only gotten worse. While the current government has pledged mountains of money towards fighting the crisis, unlike Trump’s, it’s unclear where this money is being spent. Despite the billions of dollars the administration pledged, they still haven’t appointed an Opioid Crisis Accountability Coordinator, even though this was promised as a key point of Biden’s 2020 campaign that he failed to follow up on. A lack of federal leadership can lead to the misuse of billions of dollars, which could be happening now, with states having complete control over their funds and little to no public reporting on how they’re using them.
Change has been slow, but it’s evident that it needs to happen – now. A coordinated approach at the local, state, and federal levels that is conducive rather than detrimental to policymaking is required to halt the onslaught of new cases. This means increased transparency, cooperation, and action rather than empty promises.
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