Every day in America more than 50 people die from an overdose of prescription pain medication. Some people who start out abusing pain pills later turn to heroin, which claims another 29 lives each day.
President Obama plans to ask lawmakers for hundreds of millions of dollars to combat this epidemic of opioid abuse when he releases his budget next week.
Most of that money — about a billion dollars over the next two years — would pay to expand treatment to help people kick the opioid habit. While the patchwork of treatment programs around the country has the capacity to serve about one million people, administration officials say the number of addicts who need help is more than double that.
"We've heard countless stories about people who encounter long waiting lines to get into treatment, to find a bed," said White House drug czar Michael Botticelli. "[It's] one of the things that's really important when people reach out for help with addiction, which often can be a challenge. We want to get to the point where we have treatment on demand."
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
Stop the flow at the same time?? Build a wall. Hire 50,000 Border Patrol or engage the military to secure the porous border.
319 million people in the US. This is a low number considering the illegals. 50 people die? I'm just not seeing a huge problem.
how about stop the despair, has anyone ever thought that there are more people unemployed sitting at home with nothing to do but play with their obamaphone and collect food stamps. so much time to do nothing and have nothing in their lives why not turn to drugs
Ah 9:56 stop making sense! Your solution would probably also make a nice dent in gang and gun violence and maybe even help ease the prison population.
Post a Comment