The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that drug overdose deaths rose to 72,000 in 2017, a 10 percent increase from 2016. This is more than the number of people who die each year from car crashes or suicides.
Overdose deaths are now close to the 7th leading cause of death in this country, responsible for 1.5 percent of all deaths.
The national numbers mask even bigger spikes in some states. In Indiana, overdose rates increased by 17 percent in 2017, one of the largest increases the nation has seen.
The spike in overdose deaths will result in renewed calls to regulate opioids, which are responsible for two-thirds of overdose deaths. Already, nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the government should do more to address the problem, according to a CBS poll from earlier this year.
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But the overdose crisis is a cultural problem that doesn’t necessarily respond to government solutions. As regulations surrounding prescription painkillers tighten, more dangerous black market opioids like fentanyl have taken their place. Deaths by such synthetic opioids increased by one-third last year, according to the CDC.
Rather than doubling down on top-down initiatives like pharmaceutical restrictions and the drug war, policymakers and concerned citizens should focus on fostering bottom-up cultural change through local community support, church programs, awareness campaigns, and free access to recovery programs.
People don’t stop using drugs because doctors and pharmacists curb prescriptions or because police step up enforcement. They stop using drugs because they find a greater purpose, a supportive community, and a reason to live beyond the high.
Projects like Back on My Feet, where I was a volunteer leader for several years, use running as a means to help recovering addicts overcome. I remain friends with at least one man from the program who has retained his sobriety for more then 7 years now.
Another example is The Phoenix, a gym whose only membership requirement is 48 straight hours of sobriety and offers a vital community aspect so many addicts are missing in their lives. Studies show that regular exercise may help in preventing drug addiction, due to the natural release of dopamine that is similar to that of a manufactured high.
You can also look to things like local YMCAs and community centers, which foster community engagement in a healthy way that promotes friendship, camaraderie and purpose. Additionally, new churches in small communities attract individuals who had never attended church or hadn’t attended in many years. It’s clear there is a strong desire for this kind of life support, and yet it won’t ever be the main focus for combating addiction in the media or on Capitol Hill.
Policymakers should prioritize funding these types of programs and promote more personalized kinds of help that has a lasting impact and addresses the root of the issue, rather than one of access and regulation. Empowerment of local communities to help their citizens where they are is a far better way than national regulations that consider all victims of addiction to require the same solutions.
Government efforts to regulate opioid prescription may even exacerbate the epidemic by forcing those in pain onto the black market to use far more dangerous and unregulated opioids. “The focus on prescription painkillers is especially misguided now that the vast majority of opioid-related deaths actually involve illegally produced drugs,” said veteran journalist on the issue, Jacob Sullum.
I speak with the conviction of the converted. On a recent radio show, where I discussed my support for government initiatives to regulate the pharmaceutical industry, a distressed caller educated me about her sister. She lives with chronic pain and is now unable to get the appropriate amount of painkillers she needs to control it. Her misery made me rethink my original support for tackling the crisis through regulations that put limits on drugs based on arbitrary quantities.
Adam Trosell of Pittsburgh, who has lived with chronic pain for 15 years and has been unable to find a doctor to prescribe the opioids that had been providing him relief, noted that the depression that comes with chronic pain is horrific. He says government efforts to over-regulate are “inhumane and cruel” to people like him. In the most extreme cases, some in chronic pain who are unable to access painkillers because of well-intended government regulations are considering or committing suicide.
As last week’s overdose data demonstrates, government regulation is not curbing the overdose epidemic. Cultural organizations like Back on My Feet, The Phoenix, and local community centers are more powerful, long-lasting solutions for addicts. Policymakers should give these a fresh look before doubling down on failed prohibition policies.
Ericka Andersen is the author of Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected From the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma and Mental Illness. She works for the Independent Women’s Forum and lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
