According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention more than 140 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Today we call that an epidemic. To combat that Trump has been talking about how it is a national crisis and health emergency, it is actually what helped him win in New Hampshire, promising to change policy. Up until now not much has happened until Trump declared a public health emergency to deal with the opioid epidemic. While simultaneously the Trump administration launched an ad campaign trying to bring awareness to the detriment of drinking and doing drugs. During his speech it rang similarly to another politician who suggested to, “Just say No” as Trump echos this with “don’t drink don’t drink”, something his alcoholic brother would tell him.
If the Just Say No campaign did not work why should the American public believe that declaring a public health emergency will. Because it is not good enough. For an epidemic this large, wiping out almost a generation of people this has become a national emergency. It appears Trump wanted to create a show, some sort of temporary solution that creates a bandaid for addiction treatment. The funds allocated for Public Health Emergencies are almost gone and there are no new policies being put into place, so where is the real solution? This was a declarative act to subdue the masses into appeasement while not actually allocating funds to programs that will find solutions. A possibility would be to make Naloxone, an anti-overdose drug, more available and allow insurance to cover more treatment costs so that people have an opportunity to go.
Too many people are dying, too many people are not receiving the help they need. An Ad campaign is not America’s solution to a deadly disease. This is a citizen’s saddened call to action to change the stigma and start offering solutions, to not shrug it off and use it to make you appear to be changing policies. SAD.
In my fellow classmate and friend's blog, Living in a Red State, Lauren states that, "According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention more than 140 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Today we call that an epidemic." I heartily agree with her that, "If the Just Say No campaign did not work why should the American public believe that declaring a public health emergency will. Because it is not good enough." She makes a great point that for an epidemic, this large. It is wiping out almost a whole generation of people. This has become a national emergency and we need to do more to fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Trump administration launched an ad campaign trying to bring awareness to the detriment of drinking and doing drugs, they failed to make an impact. During Trump's speech, he had a similar position to another politician who suggested to, “Just say No”. Trump echos this with his, “don’t drink don’t drink”, something his alcoholic brother would tell him. Like Lauren said, "It appears Trump wanted to create a show, some sort of temporary solution that creates a band-aid for addiction treatment. The funds allocated for Public Health Emergencies are almost gone and there are no new policies being put into place, so where is the real solution?"
She makes a strong argument by not only naming the problem, but naming a proper solution. She says that, "A possibility would be to make Naloxone, an anti-overdose drug, more available and allow insurance to cover more treatment costs so that people have an opportunity to go." I agree with her, that if we have an epidemic such as this, we need to treat it like one. We need to come up with a more substantial and more significant solution, because addiction is not to be taken lightly. Addictions are major battles that are incredibly difficult to fight. Addictions can drive people to do insane things, such as killing themselves. We need to stop losing people to something so dangerous.
After reading your argument for a proactive treatment plan for the opioid crisis, as opposed to an add campaign, I agree entirely. The strengths of your argument include the colloquial voice, statistical information, and presenting a solution (making Naloxone more available). Just as you point out, the Reagan era “Just Say No” campaign achieved nothing in combating the drug crisis in the United States. The idea that “saying no” to opioids is a solution to the fact “140 American die every day from an opioid overdose” is preposterous, partially because many people become addicted after prescriptions from medical professionals.
ReplyDeleteArguably, one of the worst public policy decisions of the United States is the “War on Drugs,” because of its blatant failure and criminalization of addiction rather than treating it as a public health crisis. I come from a family of addicts, from alcohol to opioids to heroin, and I have seen the struggle against addiction; from this firsthand experience, I understand addiction will not go away from an ad campaign or from a prison sentence, rather there needs to be real action, which the Trump administration is not dedicated to.
Also, if you are really interested in combating drug addiction, and different policies, you might want to look into Portugal’s drug policy. The interesting thing about Portugal is that all drugs are legal there, and the focus is more on treatment than criminalization.