Issue Position: Ending the Opioid Crisis

Issue Position

In 2017, 70,000 people died from a drug overdose, the highest year on record -- and the majority of those deaths were due to opioids. Add your name if you agree: We need a comprehensive plan to end the opioid crisis.

Life expectancy in the United States dropped again in 2017, part of the longest sustained decline in a century -- one largely driven by the opioid epidemic. More than 685,000 Americans have died from a drug overdose in the United States this century, and it's getting worse. In 2017, that number was 70,000 people, the highest year on record, and the majority of those deaths were due to opioids. Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses have skyrocketed. Children have lost their parents. And only a small percentage of those suffering ever receive the treatment they need.

The crisis has also severely impacted communities of color, exacerbated by existing health disparities. For example, in 2017 the number of opioid-related deaths was 692 in Baltimore, almost as high as West Virginia, 833 -- the state with the highest death rate in the country -- with most deaths occurring in the black community.

This is not the first time our country has faced a national public health crisis of great magnitude. When deaths from HIV/AIDS grew rapidly in the 1980s, our country's medical system was ill-equipped to respond. In 1990, Congress passed the Ryan White CARE Act, which finally provided significant new, guaranteed funding to help state and local governments combat the growing epidemic and provided a safety net for those living with the disease. A similar national mobilization is needed to confront the opioid epidemic today.

That's why in partnership with Rep. Cummings of Baltimore, today I'm rolling out the CARE Act -- a comprehensive plan to end the opioid crisis by providing the resources needed to begin treating this epidemic like the public health crisis that it is.

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