When political leaders talk about America’s current drug crisis, they are typically referring to opioids like painkillers, heroin and fentanyl.
And when they have passed laws to deal with the problem in the past decade, those policies have centered on opioids.
They have, for example, focused on boosting access to medications that treat only opioid addiction or reverse only opioid overdoses.
These types of problems are why experts have long urged policymakers to take a comprehensive approach to drug addiction.
More support for opioid addiction medications is important, but so is funding underused treatments that address meth and cocaine addiction (such as paying people to stop using drugs).
Persons:
Jan Hoffman, Jan, dumpsters