Progressive One

This will benefit a specific group in a disproportionate way. Research it and see who that may be.

By MARK LANDLERMARCH 29, 2016


President Obama with Crystal Oertle, an Ohio woman who is in recovery from a substance use disorder, at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta on Tuesday. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
ATLANTA — President Obama, confronting a national epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse, met here Tuesday with recovering addicts, doctors and law enforcement officials to underscore his determination to tackle a problem some critics say he left until too late in his administration.

“We are seeing more people killed because of opioid overdose than from traffic accidents — I mean, think about that,” Mr. Obama said at a meeting of the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit. “It has to be something right up at the top of our radar screen.”

The administration announced an array of new measures to expand drug treatment centers and increase the use of drugs, like naloxone, that reverse the effects of overdoses from opioids, ranging from illegal narcotics like heroin to brand-name painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet. These modest steps built on the $1.1 billion in additional funding that the White House requested this year to fight opioid addiction.

But the president said that “this is still an area that’s grossly underresourced.”

Mr. Obama cast the opioid scourge as having transcended economic and social boundaries. “If there’s a market for heroin in an inner city in Baltimore,” the president said, “it’s not going to take that long before those drugs find their way to a wealthy suburb outside Baltimore.”

The president listened as two fellow panelists recounted their struggles with drug addiction and a treatment process that often stigmatized them as criminals. Crystal Oertle, a 35-year-old mother of two from Ohio, described how she progressed from the recreational use of the painkiller Vicodin to OxyContin and then, finally, to heroin.

“They are pretty much like heroin,” she said of Vicodin and OxyContin. “When it came to the point when I couldn’t find those pills, I had to go to the street. That’s how I got into using heroin after the pills.”

Justin Riley, 28, said he had begun experimenting with painkillers in third grade to compensate for a feeling of emotional emptiness. “I used to take Benadryl to sleep through the night,” he said. Mr. Riley, who has been in recovery since 2007, runs a nationwide organization that helps young people combat addiction.

Treating addiction, Mr. Obama said, has been hindered because the public has long viewed opioid use as a character flaw, common to people in poor and minority communities. That has changed, he said, because opioid addiction has spread so widely.

Mr. Obama again spoke about these drugs in starkly personal terms. “When I was a kid, I was— how would I put it? — not always as responsible as I am today,” Mr. Obama said to laughs. “I was lucky because, for whatever reason, addiction didn’t get its claws into me, with the exception of cigarettes.”

GRAPHIC
How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Ripples Across America
Drug deaths have surged in nearly every U.S. county, reaching a new peak in 2014.


OPEN GRAPHIC
Mr. Obama said he was not certain why he had not strayed into drug use. He referred to friends who had battled drug addiction and “were not more morally suspect than me.”

The last time Mr. Obama traveled outside Washington to dramatize the scourge of opioid addiction — to West Virginia in October — his administration won praise for drawing attention to the problem but was criticized for not doing enough to combat a public health epidemic that worsened greatly during his presidency.

Since then, the federal government has published the first national guidelines for prescription painkillers, required new warning labels for certain kinds of opioid painkillers, and requested an additional $1.1 billion to expand treatment facilities and finance programs to prevent overdoses and crack down on illegal sales of drugs.

“The only thing I would fault them for is that they waited too long to do this,” said Dr. Carl R. Sullivan, the director of addiction services at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. “This has been able to idle along for a long time.”

In particular, Dr. Sullivan said, the national guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide a “compass point” for the treatment of patients and the education of medical residents and even practicing doctors. “The situation is so dire that we had to do something,” he said.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, denied that the administration had waited too long to address the crisis. The Affordable Care Act, he noted, provides funding for expanded treatment of mental health problems, a key cause of drug abuse. By doing so, Mr. Earnest said, the president shifted the focus from purely law enforcement to medical treatment.

He said the coming presidential election had thrown a harsh spotlight on the extent of the problem. The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, after stressing that addiction was a recurring theme in her campaign swings, has proposed $7.5 billion in federal funding to help states expand treatment programs. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has spoken emotionally of the death of his older half sister, Miriam, from a drug overdose at 49.

Opioids played a part in 28,648 deaths in the United States in 2014, a record number, according to the C.D.C., and opioid painkillers like OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin generate nearly $2 billion a year in sales.

Part of the problem for the Obama administration in combating these drugs is that the epidemic was fueled in part by doctors who prescribed the medicines indiscriminately, but regulating doctors has historically fallen to the states. Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine are among states that have moved in recent months to limit the ability of doctors to prescribe these pills. But patient and doctor groups, some funded by the pharmaceutical industry, have resisted state and federal efforts.

To underscore the role of the states, Mr. Obama invited two lawmakers to join him on the trip: Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Representative Hank Johnson, Democrat of Georgia. Mr. Markey is pushing legislation that would remove all federal caps on the ability of doctors to prescribe buprenorphine, an opioid derivative that is used to treat people addicted to opioids.

“Coming from a state that is disproportionately impacted by this scourge,” Mr. Markey said in a statement, “I believe we should do as much as we can, as soon as we can, to expand treatment to those who need it most.”

Correction: March 29, 2016
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a recovering addict who met with President Obama. She is Crystal Oertle, not Oerle.

Gardiner Harris contributed reporting from Washington.

Ricktloml

There are 45 million chronic pain patients who are now going to suffer terribly because of these new regulations. Too bad THEY weren't considered. All chronic pain patients did was take their prescribed medicines as directed-but because of people who abuse these drugs chronic pain sufferers will now pay the price in increased and terrible pain. Way to go bureaucrats

Progressive One

How did you conclude as much?

goulas Loc: California

Of course no regulations for cocaine, amphetamines, and crack.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Truly pitiful!

Barack Obama is going to throw money at the problem. Our money.

...and he's going to substitute other drugs for those being taken.

It would never occur to him to build a fence.

Sons of Liberty Loc: look behind you!

Chronic pain sucks. I have to deal with it everyday. IMHO, the heroin epidemic is due to patients being taken off of their prescribed opioids because of government and head to the street in search for pain relief.

Wolf counselor Loc: Heart of Texas

Well Kuntus,

This is a move in support of ghetto dope dealers.

Now if people need opioids, they can just go to the ghetto and some spook will have what they need.

Everyone knows that spooks need strong dope in order to escape the reality of being poor dumb spooks.........KUNTUS !!

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

That's because those are already illegal.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

The AMA itself has acknowledged the over prescribing of pain killers and have instructed DR's to only prescribe some like hydrocodone in terminal conditions with few exceptions.

Study after study have shown that their over utilization by physicians increases disability in those being treated for "chronic pain". Their use has been shown to reduce productivity and time away from work. Their use has been shown to prolong rehabilitation of injuries.

Think about what you are saying. 45 million being treated for "chronic" pain?? I see a lot of these patients and 8 out of ten at least do not need that level of pain killer and need to pursue other means of over coming the condition which put's them in the "chronic" pain category. Most are just addicted.

Add to that the ones who sell their prescriptions on the street for 10 to 20 dollars a pill and you can see the problem.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Wolf, you're such a piece of shit. Really.

Wolf counselor Loc: Heart of Texas

Correction: I'm a world class piece of shit.

And what are you..........The savior and protector of foul mouthed spooks ?

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Awesome, a full confession of what you truly are!!

Your question is equally as idiotic. What's a spook? You some kind of weirdo too????

Workinman Loc: Bayou Pigeon

Pretty hypocritical of you and obama...if he was so concerned about the heroin epidemic he would have shut down the border....where the hell do you think the majority of heroin comes from....

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Granted, not enough is done to halt the flow of drugs like cocaine and heroin into the country, but the topic is about prescription pain drugs.

Workinman Loc: Bayou Pigeon

Funny and here I thought the title was...

Obama Steps Up U.S. Effort to Fight Abuse of Heroin and Painkillers