What Doctors Facing the Opioid Crisis Need Next
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How do you confront an epidemic that has claimed more lives than the HIV/AIDS crisis at its peak? How do you counteract a system that incentivizes the flow of prescription painkillers from doctors to patients and ends up getting 3 million Americans addicted each year? And how do you reverse surging demand for prescription opioids’ illegal substitutes, which are more damaging and toxic but far cheaper and easier to obtain?
You could start by declaring a national public health emergency. That’s what President Trump did on Oct. 26, creating a 90-day window during which federal agencies … must shift parts of their existing budgets to address the crisis. After 90 days, the President can renew the emergency status to extend the intensified response.
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