Illustration: HuffPost/Photo: Reuters
Daisy Pierce has heard all the promises that politicians who want to be president make when they come to New Hampshire, including their vows to combat the state’s opioid addiction crisis[1].
As executive director of Navigating Recovery[2] in Laconia, Pierce works with people striving to control their substance use disorder. She knows the toll that opioids and other drugs have taken in her state, one of the hardest-hit by the epidemic.
After several years of intensified federal, state and local efforts, there are some promising signs. Opioid overdose deaths are down here[3], as they are nationwide[4]. Last year, 364 people died from opioid overdoses in New Hampshire, a drop from 471 the prior year and 490 in 2017, after rising consistently in the previous five years.
Doctors in the U.S. are writing fewer opioid prescriptions[5], and federal funding has enabled states to improve the infrastructure for treating people with substance use disorder. Pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors face hundreds of billions of dollars in payouts to states that sued them[6] over the proliferation of opioids, and the federal government is conducting a criminal investigation[7] into the drug industry.
Pierce is grateful for the help that has come in the last four years, especially the federal grants that enabled New Hampshire to broaden access to addiction treatments. But she doesn’t have a lot of faith in the things people say when they’re trying to win votes. She hasn’t seen evidence that the high-minded rhetoric from 2016 translated into the kind of bold action still needed.