The White House takes the credit to reduce the number of opioid deaths. Here is the catch. – Mother Jones

Darwin Brandis / Getty

For the first time in nearly three decades, the number of drug-related deaths appears to have decreased: overdoses decreased by 5% in 2018, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 69,000 Americans died from overdoses in 2018, up from 72,000 the year before.

The news gives the authorities hope that the opioid epidemic, which has reduced life expectancy in the United States for three years, could finally stabilize. "Leadership matters" tweeted Kellyanne Conway, trump advisor, praises the Trump administration's "awareness, action and funding". "We are starting to win the fight against this crisis," proclaimed Secretary of Health and Social Services Alex Azar in a statement.

But there are a number of catches. Although preliminary data show that overdose deaths may be decreasing (the final data will probably be available by the end of this year), overdose rates remain very high. As Keith Humphreys, Stanford's drug policy expert, says, "This is the first sign of a decline in the number of deaths since the beginning of the epidemic. It's encouraging, but we're still losing more Americans every year than we lost during the Vietnam War because of the drug overdose, so this is definitely not the time to party. "

And although overdoses of prescription opioids appear to be decreasing, the number of fatalities badociated with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid often mixed with the drug supply, continues to grow. Deaths related to stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine also increased from 21% to 5% between 2017 and 2018. These trends could be correlated: a recent CDC study found that fentanyl and other opioids Synthetic drugs fueled the rise in cocaine overdoses and are increasingly involved in overdoses of methamphetamine. Today, most of the methamphetamine in America comes from Mexico and is "extremely pure, powerful and affordable," according to the National Institute of Addictions.

Although President Trump frequently praises his administration's work on opioids, its record is not as impressive.

Congress has spent billions of dollars on prevention, treatment and recovery programs over the years – far more than for previous drug epidemics, although much less than the $ 100 billion needed to stop the disease. epidemic over ten years. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has progressively flouted the Affordable Care Act, which allowed 36 states to expand Medicaid and gain access to affordable drug treatment. Previous research had estimated that if ACA was completely eliminated, about three million Americans with addiction disorders would lose their insurance coverage. As Humphreys, who advised the Obama administration on drug policy, noted in 2017, the ACA was "designed to be very broad, but at the same time, we knew that". there was something for which it would help a lot, it's addiction. "