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UNDERLYING THE WEIRD SOUTH DAKOTA METH PSA: A WORSENING NATIONWIDE METH CRISIS: South Dakota attracted quite a bit of derision on social media Monday night with its new meth abuse-awareness ad campaign, tagline: “Meth. We’re on it.”
But as much as the public service announcement provided fodder for jokes on Twitter, it’s badly needed. Meth has, quietly, become a major nationwide crisis, as Cassidy writes in the Washington Examiner’s latest magazine issue.
But first, the background: Many couldn’t believe that the South Dakota ad campaign was real.
Then, when Governor Kristi Noem tweeted it out from her official account, many critics suggested that it was tone-deaf.
But Noem insisted that the point of the ad campaign was to raise awareness, and, judging by the social media reaction, it succeeded. The state is slated to spend about $1.4 million on the campaign, created by Minneapolis marketing and ad agency Broadhead Co. It probably garnered coverage worth far more than that Tuesday night.
It’s not easy to draw attention to drug crises: Meth has made a troubling comeback since its heyday in the 1990s, and it isn’t coming from Breaking Bad-type labs in rural America. It’s more accessible than ever nationwide thanks to an increased supply from across the southern border and thus a lower cost per dose.
The rate of meth abuse increased by about 60% in the past few years, according to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. About 964,000 people said they abused meth in 2017, and 1.1 million in 2018 — almost double the number of people who reported heroin abuse (526,000). In 2017, 9,356 people died of meth overdoses, the fourth-highest toll for drugs, behind fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine (altogether, 60,566 people died from opioids that year).
For example, it took years for government officials and the broader public to pick up on the opioid crisis: Public awareness about the terrible opioid opioid crisis afflicting the nation didn’t really rise until after President Trump’s election, in 2017. Yet addiction and deaths had been rising for years in parts of the country. In 2014, then-governor Peter Shumlin dedicated his entire State of the State address to the “full-blown heroin crisis” immiserating Vermont, to little notice.
Parts of the country are now suffering badly with meth addiction: Dr. Wesley Zeger, an emergency medicine doctor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told the Washington Examiner the volume of meth users in the Omaha emergency room has doubled in the past two years. Similarly, Dr. Martin Huecker sees, on average, 10 methamphetamine addicts each month in his emergency room at the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center, sometimes three or four in an eight-hour shift.
Meth is cheaper than some opiates, and more readily available. People will often combine it with heroin or benzodiazepines like Xanax, a deadly cocktail. Huecker told Cassidy that the crisis is bound to escalate as long as Washington doesn’t take aggressive action to stop it early.
Hunter said that by introducing policies that address only one substance at a time, Congress is playing a never-ending game of “whack-a-mole.”
“First, we have a big crack problem, we figured out some ways around it and get it to go away, and then meth pops up, and then we squash that, and then opioids come in,” Hunter said.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
TOM STEYER CALLS FOR A PUBLIC OPTION: Billionaire presidential candidate Tom Steyer on Monday proposed a healthcare system with a public option that would lead to universal coverage over time. His plan, much like Joe Biden’s and Pete Buttigieg’s, would allow Americans to buy into a Medicare-like government plan, but it would allow the government to negotiate payments and rates with insurers. It would be less of a radical overhaul than what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have called for with “Medicare for all.” Negotiated rates would accommodate various levels of income, especially for those in rural areas that have seen thousands of hospital closings.
STUDY FINDS PUBLIC HEALTHCARE MAY NOT ATTRACT IMMIGRANTS: State-level Medicaid expansion isn’t necessarily a magnet for low-income immigrants, according to a new study in the Jama Pediatrics journal. Researchers found that immigrants already living in states without an expanded Medicaid plan were not more likely to move to a state that had expanded Medicaid in order to get health coverage. The authors of the study concluded there is no proof that improved public health coverage incentivizes immigrants to move to states that have adopted a more comprehensive government health plan.
‘MEDICARE FOR ALL’ ISN’T POPULAR AMONG IOWA CAUCUS-GOERS: Only 36% of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers support a “Medicare for all” plan. Meanwhile, a majority, a combined total of 54%, are likely to support a public option proposal or a plan that builds off what Obamacare has already established, including protections for those with pre-existing conditions, according to a CNN/Des Moines Register poll.
The Rundown
ProPublica The quiet rooms: children are being locked away, alone and terrified, in schools across Illinois. Often, it’s against the law.
KCUR Missouri begins youth vaping campaign, governor won’t restrict products
The New York Times 114,000 students in N.Y.C. are homeless. These two let us into their lives.
The Hill Democratic group to only endorse attorney general candidates who back abortion rights
The Colorado Sun Colorado officials have finalized their proposal for a public health insurance option. Here’s what we still don’t know about it.
The Wall Street Journal Baltimore fights to clear massive backlog of asbestos cases
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | Nov. 20
10 a.m. Dirksen 430 Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the Nomination of Stephen M. Hahn, MD, to serve as Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Details.
12 p.m. 1330 G. St. NW. Kaiser Health News Discussion, “How We Cope: Intimate Lessons From the Front-Lines of Family Caregiving.” Details.
2 p.m. Dirksen 215 Senate Finance Committee Hearing to examine Alzheimer’s awareness, focusing on barriers to diagnosis, treatment, and care coordination. Details.
2 p.m. Rayburn 2128 House Financial Service Committee hearing on the Current State of Residents’ Health and Safety in HUD Housing. Details.
FRIDAY | Nov. 22
House not in session.
