Giving Compass' Take:

· Fred Dews reports on the highlights from a recent Brookings event discussing the opioid epidemic, and why the criminal justice system should be reformed to recognize addiction as a health issue. 

· Why should addiction be treated as a disease rather than a crime? How can America help those suffering from opioid addiction? 

· Here's more on the opioid epidemic and where we are now. 

“The substance use crisis, particularly opioid misuse crisis, is the most important public health challenge of our time,” said Admiral Brett P. Giroir, M.D., the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, at a recent Brookings event on the opioid crisis.

Adm. Giroir’s remark occurred during a panel discussion hosted by the Governance Studies program about crafting effective policy for the opioid epidemic. Joining Adm. Giroir were Brookings Senior Fellow John Hudak, and Regina LaBelle, principal at LaBelle Strategies and a fellow with the Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. Katie Zezima, national correspondent for The Washington Post, moderated the panel.

Zezima asked the panelists if existing public policy is sufficient to combat the opioid crisis, considering the rise in overdose deaths since 2016. Adm. Giroir credited HHS’ five-point strategy to empower local communities for some of the progress seen in recent data.

Adm. Giroir said that based on the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data, “it does look like we are making an impact on the overall crisis.” He also noted “the number of overdoses going to the emergency rooms between the third and fourth quarter of 2017 have declined for opioids almost fourteen percent, and … the mortality curves, looking at the rolling twelve months, not just 2016 to 2017 … [are hitting a plateau] and actually starting to going down.”

Read the full article about the opioid epidemic by Fred Dews at Brookings.