In addition to his outstanding record, drug overdose deaths are beginning to decline rapidly under Biden

The number of drug-related deaths has declined. A headline in Axios summarizes this encouraging trend:Deaths from overdose are declining rapidly'. The story provides details:

• The CDC's most recent data, ending in April, show that overdose deaths are falling faster than the 3% decline between 2022 and 2023.
• In the 12 months up to April [2024]Compared to the same period last year, this represents a decrease of 10%.

This positive development has exceeded the wildest expectations of those who know about these things. Public health experts are speechless at how quickly deaths are declining. NPR reports on the good news in its article: “In the USA, deaths from overdose are falling dramatically, thousands of lives are being saved'. The story quotes experts.

• “This is exciting,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute On Drug Abuse [NIDA]the federal laboratory that is responsible for researching addiction disorders. “It looks real. It looks very, very real.”
• “The trends are definitely positive. This is going to be the best year we've had since this all started,” Keith Humphreys, a drug policy researcher at Stanford, told NPR.
• “In the states with the fastest data collection systems, we're seeing declines of 20 to 30 percent,” said Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, a street drug expert at the University of North Carolina.
• “A year ago, as drug overdose deaths continued to rise, I was really struggling with hope,” said Brad Finegold, who leads Seattle's overdose crisis intervention. “Today, I have so much hope.”

Finegold's newfound optimism is fueled by a 15% decline in overdose deaths from all drugs in King's County, Washington (Seattle), and an even greater decline (20%) in deaths from street fentanyl.

This is hardly the carnage that doomsayer Trump and his obsequious chorus predicted. According to him, America had to spend billions on a border barrier to reduce opioid deaths. Unsurprisingly, the facts prove once again that the legend in his own head has a lot to say about a subject he knows nothing about – and a problem he has no solution to.

The Biden administration's success is due in part to its decision to treat drug addiction as a medical problem. For far too long, Republicans and even law-and-order Democrats thought that drug prohibition and increased criminal justice measures were the key to reducing deaths. That changed when empathy and data, rather than complacency and profit, began to dictate policy.

In Biden’s introduction to the National Drug Control Strategy 2022 presented to Congress, he said:Saving lives is our North Star.” And to this end his main strategy was: “Expanding access to evidence-based treatments, particularly medications for opioid use disorders.”

It was worth it. In August 2023, the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Dr. Rahul Gupta made a statement Comment on the latest information from the CDC release preliminary data on drug overdose deaths – which showed the beginning of the decline. He identified a key strategy.

“Expanding access to life-saving medicines to treat overdoses. Just last month FDA approves another over-the-counter product to treat overdosesThe FDA approved the First over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray earlier this spring.”

Biden did not ignore law enforcement. But he gave top priority to addiction prevention, drug rehabilitation and saving the lives of overdose victims. A strategy that has borne fruit.

Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” What she should have added – but did not, having not met MAGA – was, “If you want something said, ask a Republican. If you want something done, ask a Democrat.”

There can be no doubt about the validity of this claim when one examines Trump's record in office – or the astonishing underperformance of the current Republican Congress. What have Republicans accomplished since January 20, 2017, other than giving the rich more money?

If Trump wins and joins forces with a MAGA Congress, it's not just potential drug overdose victims who have a lot to lose. It's all of us.

#Vote