The overdose crisis has been ignored this election cycle

TThe overdose crisis claims more than 100,000 lives each year in the United States, but it received very little attention from front-runners Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (R) during the presidential campaign.

Regardless of the outcome after November 5, the winner will face an ongoing public health emergency. Proven life-saving strategies are available. But to varying degrees, the candidates’ rare words on the issue have focused on continuing the war on drugs that got us here.

In her campaign website, Vice President Harris says she is “committed to ending the opioid epidemic and fighting the scourge of fentanyl.” She cites her background as a California prosecutor and attorney general, including prosecuting individuals for drug trafficking and seizing large quantities of drugs under her leadership.

As vice president, she continues, she helped allocate $150 billion to target drug trafficking, as well as billions more in “investments to states to fund life-saving programs.” Harris also promotes the FDA approval of naloxone products as an over-the-counter drug under the Biden administration and mentions slight national decline in overdose deaths in 2023.

As president, Harris promises to sign the bipartisan border security bill that includes drug detection technology and vows to “keep fighting to end the opioid epidemic.”

While Trump goes further than Harris, both link the border to drug supply in a misleading way.

Trump has even less to say on his official platformand what is there is entirely focused on escalating the war on drugs. “We will deploy the US Navy to enforce a complete blockade of fentanyl in the waters of our region – boarding and inspecting vessels to search for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors,” the document said. There are no other details or suggestions regarding opioids or overdose.

Trump promises to “get tough on the cartels that traffic drugs and people into our country” and that he will use the Alien Enemy Act to “remove all known or suspected gang members, drug traffickers or cartel members from the United States.”

While Trump goes further than Harris, both link the border to drug supply in a misleading way. Federal Department of Homeland Security estimates that 90 percent of the fentanyl intercepted it is stopped at legal border crossings, often concealed in vehicles driven by US citizens. The notion of millions of undocumented migrants trafficking fentanyl is a fantasy.

But there is a cynical logic behind the campaigns’ points here. Immigration degrees among the top problems cited by voters in this election, according to Gallup and others. It’s especially motivating for Republican voters, a quarter of whom say it’s their top issue, but polls they found that even significant numbers of Democrats support Trump’s mass deportation plan, or that absolute majorities of voters want reduce immigration and tighten border security.

The little exchange that took place between Trump and Harris on the matter was unproductive. At a rally in Wisconsin in September, trump card falsely claimed that his opponent would legalize fentanyl. “She’s so radical that she even wants to legalize fentanyl immediately,” he said.

In response to Trump’s taunts, Harris stepped up his own anti-drug rhetoric.

That was a misrepresentation of the fact that Harris, when responding to an ACLU poll during her first presidential run in 2019, indicated she supported decriminalizing — not legalizing — drug possession at the federal level. However, Harris has not made a public statement about decriminalization this cycle.

In response to Trump’s taunts, Harris stepped up his own anti-drug rhetoric at a September rally in Las Vegas. “As president, I will double the resources for the Department of Justice to go after those transnational cartels and take action to stop the flow of fentanyl coming into our country that is destroying entire communities,” she said.

Still, she continues to support federal legalization of marijuana, saying, “I think we’ve reached a point where we need to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior.”

If her tougher tone on drugs and the border was a form of political opportunism, pandering to the center in an attempt to win votes there, Trump’s partial acceptance of marijuana legalization could be seen similarly. As a resident of Florida, former President promised to vote for of the respective state’s ballot measure to be legalized. He has it didn’t go as far as Harris in support of federal legalization, however, and has argued in the past that it should be left to the states.

In June, when Trump faced off against President Biden in a televised debate, he was asked directly about overdose deaths and what he would do to help people. It pivoted from a borderline non-answer.

“We were receiving very small numbers. Very, very small numbers.”

“Jake, we were doing really well in addiction until COVID came along,” he said. “I had the two and a half years, almost three, as no one had before, any country in all respects. And then we had to be tough. And it was … drugs pouring across the border, we’re … it started to grow.”

“We have great equipment,” he continued. “I bought a certain dog. This is the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen, the way I can see it. I did a lot. And we had—we were getting very low numbers. Very, very small numbers.”

Those “very small numbers” were anything but— under the Trump administration, annual overdose deaths rose from 68,000 to more than 95,000 by the time he left office. They continued to rise until recently under the Biden administration, reflecting the failures of Democratic and Republican administrations to address this crisis.

Both candidates have taken or supported at least some significant steps. The Biden administration saw first, Short note on “damage reduction” in the president’s 2022 State of the Union address. And it has taken steps like expanding access to naloxone, including by offering it millions of subsidies granted to rural suppliersand requiring all federal buildings to keep the medicine on site. Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services also reduced restrictions on the prescription of buprenorphine for people who use opioids, allowing more access than before to a life-saving drug.

“While the Biden-Harris administration has taken important steps … their efforts have ultimately fallen short of the scope and scale that this crisis demands.”

But it was nowhere near enough, as evidenced by the continuing deaths.

“While the Biden-Harris administration has taken important steps toward reducing harm and expanding access to naloxone, their efforts have ultimately fallen short of the scope and scale this crisis demands,” Kassandra Frederique, executive director of Drug Policy Alliance. he told him Tutor.

Trump has not claimed to support harm reduction. But as president he did signs the Support Lawwhich has invested billions in expanding community drug treatment and recovery services. It also required state Medicaid programs to cover FDA-approved drugs for opioid use disorder.

That Political reported, the bill has not been renewed since it expired in 2023. The Democratic-controlled Senate did not vote on a replacement, while the GOP-controlled House passed a bill but failed to extend its provisions or include increased funds.

“Health care reform will be a big part of the agenda… No Obamacare.”

Another related issue of critical importance to people who use drugs and many others is federal health care policy, particularly for the millions of people who rely on either subsidized plans or Medicaid expansion to access drugs and other forms of of care.

Last time in office, Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress tried to fulfill their key campaign promise to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. Just a last minute thumbs down from the late Sen. John McCain (R) protected health care coverage for tens of millions of people. An estimated 18.6 million low-income adults gain coverage because of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid.

trump card made contradictory statements about the ACA this cycle, saying at one point that “it would have been nice to just let it rot and let it go,” but also claiming, “I saved it. I did the right thing.”

That means rewriting history, of course, and for the avoidance of doubt, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) promised in October that “Health care reform will be a big part of the agenda,” simply telling an audience member, “No Obamacare.”

Harris he promised for maintaining and strengthening the ACA.

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Photo by Phil Roeder via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0

The Influence Foundation, which works Filterpreviously received a limited grant from the Drug Policy Alliance. Filterhis Editorial independence policy applies.