A number of major national outlets covered President Obama’s announcement yesterday of new initiatives to fight the nation’s abuse opioid abuse epidemic. The efforts, announced during the President’s visit to West Virginia, drew mostly positive reactions from medical groups and lawmakers. However, several sources suggest the Administration’s work on the issue so far has been largely ineffective.
The Washington Post (10/22, Mufson, Zezima) reports that the Obama Administration “announced Wednesday it will take steps to increase access to drug treatment and the training of doctors who prescribe opiate painkillers.” The efforts, which President Obama unveiled at a forum in Charleston, West Virginia, include doubling the number of physicians who can prescribe buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, to 60,000 over the next three years. The Administration will also double the number of providers that can prescribe naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The Post adds that “West Virginia — the home of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell — is the epicenter of America’s opiate epidemic, where more than a decade ago people started getting hooked on prescription drugs.”
Reuters (10/22, Edwards) reports that the President directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to invest $8.5 million in opioid addiction prevention. Reuters adds that about 45 percent of heroin users in the US are also addicted to prescription opioids, according to the CDC.
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