Most people say the federal government is not doing enough to fight opioid abuse, as the House and Senate battle over dueling legislation on the issue.
The poll released Tuesday from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that people don’t think the federal and state governments are pulling their weight in fighting a problem that kills 72 Americans a day.
About 66 percent of those surveyed said the federal government wasn’t doing enough to help people addicted to prescription painkillers, and 62 percent said the same for those addicted to heroin. Painkiller abuse is commonly a gateway to using heroin, which is often cheaper and readily available.
A similar percentage found the same beliefs about state governments with respect to painkiller abuse (67 percent) and heroin abuse (61 percent).
Fewer people say the police aren’t doing enough to combat painkiller abuse (37 percent) and heroin abuse (36 percent).
More than eight in 10 Americans polled said that various policy actions are effective, including increasing pain management training for medical students and doctors (88 percent), increasing research about pain (83 percent) and monitoring doctors’ prescribing habits (82 percent).
About 60 percent found that reducing the stigma surrounding addiction could help.
The findings, based on interviews with 1,201 people, come as the House is undertaking a major effort to advance more than a dozen opioid bills when it returns from recess next week. The bills seek to expand access to addiction treatments and the overdose antidote naloxone.
The House effort was started after the Senate passed a comprehensive bill more than a month ago by a 94-1 vote. House leadership decided to craft its own response instead of taking up the Senate bill, much to the chagrin of co-sponsor Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Portman said he agrees with the poll’s findings and urged the House to act on his bill “so that the president can sign this measure and let it help millions of Americans.”
More than 70 addiction groups and schools have criticized the House effort for leaving out key provisions of the Senate bill that address recovery for high school students.
