A huge step backward on opioids
How to fix the opioid crisis
CNN (US)
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
The latest statistics on the overdose crisis -- roughly 64,000 deaths in the United States in 2016 -- also reveal that fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now the driving force behind US overdose deaths. Fentanyl is an opioid estimated to be 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, and it's often added to heroin to increase its potency. Sadly, just as a bipartisan consensus was emerging that a punitive approach to drugs was not the way forward, lawmakers are responding to fentanyl by prioritizing prison over public health and embracing discredited drug war policies proven to make the crisis worse.
