HIV/AIDS taught us how to beat the opioid epidemic
(Salon)
The United States is not the only nation wrestling with opioid addiction. It is, however, one of the few nations unwilling to do much about it, even though the word “opioid” is spread across newspaper headlines daily, and Americans are dying of overdose in droves.
After Many Years, The FDA Announces Loosened Standards For Addiction Medication Approval
Only a month after being sworn in, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II has announced, in a major breach with longstanding tradition, that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will loosen its approval requirements for medications to treat individuals with substance use disorders. In the context of the opioid overdose epidemic, his announcement builds on the FDA’s recent momentum to contain the crisis through improving access to evidence-based treatment under the impressive leadership of director Scott Gottlieb, MD. Changes in federal regulation are often needed to effectively respond to an epidemic of this scale, such as the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s and 1990s. However, Secretary Azar’s announcement is not free of peril.
Read Our Letter to Judge Polster about the Opioid Crisis
Judge Polster is ruling on hundreds of federal lawsuits brought by local governments against members of the opioid industry in the wake of the opioid epidemic. We sent this letter to Judge Polster asking him to help us #StopTheSpiral of opioid addiction by dedicating a significant portion of any potential settlement funds to providing evidence-based treatment for people combating OUD.