America’s opioid epidemic is finally getting some desperately needed attention from this administration and Congress. The omnibus budget bill, passed in March, added $3.3 billion to combat the crisis—a significant increase, but far from enough to meet the need.
We are in the midst of the deadliest drug-overdose epidemic in our nation’s history. More than 64,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States in 2016, and at least two-thirds of those deaths were linked to opioids.
Although there is much to be done, this infusion of funds is a step in the right direction—as long as they are directed to proven treatments. Psychology has developed many effective evidence-based treatments that warrant wide dissemination. APA is calling on policymakers to prioritize the following areas—all places where psychology can make a significant contribution.
- Promoting nonpharmacological treatment for chronic pain and increasing access to integrated pain management services and treatment of comorbid mental health disorders.
- Providing a comprehensive continuum of services for those addicted to opioids, including psychotherapy and counseling, as part of medication-assisted treatment and other psychosocial interventions.
- Providing recovery support services, including housing, education and supported employment, for those struggling with addiction.
- Expanding the mental health and substance use treatment provider workforce and improving health-care providers’ effectiveness through education and training.
- Increasing investments in research on psychosocial interventions to treat chronic pain, opioid addiction and other substance use disorders.
- Improving the service delivery system, including the availability and quality of services.
- Fostering drug courts to divert people into treatment.
Absent from this list are the much-talked-about proposed new mandatory minimum sentences for opioid-related drug offenses, up to and including execution for the most serious offenses. We have tried before to arrest our way out of a drug crisis—it didn’t work then and it won’t work now. Addiction is an illness. Let’s focus less on punishment and more on treating those who need our help.
