Where is the money? Federal opioid bill criticized for lack of funds | Policy

The Congress is about to pass a bill to combat the plague of opioid addiction with at least 115 victims a day, although some criticize the plan.

The US $ 8.4 billion proposal, adopted by the US House of Representatives and Senate, aims to prevent fentanyl, a deadly synthetic drug, from being shipped from China and Mexico through of the US Postal Service. It would also allow doctors to prescribe more drugs such as Vivitrol and Buprenorphine to help addicts to wean themselves off opioids.

Lawmakers are preparing a final version of the bill to be sent to President Donald Trump before the end of the year. But some say the plan, as drafted, lacks the money needed to wipe out a wave of dependency that killed more than 70,000 Americans last year.

"Without real money, it's only lip service," said John Rosenthal, co-founder and chairman of the Police-Assisted Addiction and Rehabilitation Initiative, to Christian M. Wade of CNHI. "This disease has raged for more than a decade without a serious response from the federal government and they are now trying to catch up."

Sarah Wakeman, medical director of the Mass Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders Initiative at Mass General Hospital, told the Washington Post that to target the scale of the epidemic. In the case of opioids, federal funding would be required to match the $ 20 billion spent annually on HIV / AIDS. .

Rosenthal agreed and said the bill contained "good things" but that it required "billions" of dollars – similar to the federal response to the prevention and treatment of cancer and HIV / AIDS .

The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Told the registry earlier this year that Congress had already devoted record resources to fighting "this scourge" by guaranteeing more than $ 4 billion to prevention, treatment and enforcement efforts.

In a previous interview, McConnell said that additional funds would be maintained with each spending bill passed.

"And last week, President (Donald) Trump signed an appropriations bill that will strengthen the fight against drug abuse and its devastating effects on communities in my state of Kentucky and across the country," said Mr. McConnell. "This law provides for $ 3.8 billion in opioid funding, an increase of $ 206 million over the previous year."

President Trump signed the credits bill on Friday.

The funding and additional resources proposed in the 2018 Opioid Crisis Intervention Act would be timely. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC, the number of overdose deaths has increased over the last four years and has almost tripled since 2002.

Overdose deaths at the national level have reported more than 70,000 Americans. Approximately 48,000 of these deaths were opioid-related, with the sharpest increase in deaths from fentanyl and illicitly manufactured fentanyl analogues (synthetic opioids).

In Kentucky, the number of overdose deaths reached 1,500 in 2017.

"The historic opioid legislation will help end the opioid crisis," said McConnell. "This will stop more drugs at the border, improve interstate surveillance and encourage prescription drug reform, and encourage recovery, through increased resources for local and local stakeholders, of better access to care for patients." increased support for families and caregivers of And this legislation is looking to the future by supporting long-term medical research and cost-effective solutions to our country's going through this vicious circle. "

Christian M. Wade contributed to this story.

Jonathan Greene is the publisher of The Register; follow him on Twitter @jgreeneRR.