Health security

White House Declares New War on Drugs to Stop Escalating Opioid Crisis

The White House this week announced a plan to stem drug supply and demand fueling the opioid crisis, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions telling law enforcement officers that “this administration will not stand back as addiction shatters our families and devastates our communities.”

Sessions cited the sobering statistics of America’s opioid crisis during his Thursday speech in Tallahassee: 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016, “the highest drug death toll and the fastest increase in that death toll in American history.”

“That’s the equivalent of the entire city of Daytona Beach dying from drug overdoses in a single year,” he said. “Preliminary data show another — but what appears to be a smaller — increase for 2017. Amazingly, for Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death.”

Of those 2016 overdose deaths, 42,000 were attributed to opioids.

“We are experiencing death rates the likes of which we have never seen before. By the time I have finished speaking, another American will have died of an opioid overdose,” Sessions said. “…By the time this speech is over, another baby will be born in the United States who is physically dependent on opioids.”