Drugs to treat opiod crisis not readily available

Governing - Despite billions of federal dollars flowing into states to help fight the opioid epidemic -- which was responsible for nearly 48,000 deaths in the United States in 2017, or approximately 130 each day -- this public health crisis continues to grow. The number of overdose deaths has risen precipitously over the past 20 years, and policymakers and officials at the state and local levels have struggled to make meaningful progress in reducing this trend.

But the ongoing tragedy of opioid-related deaths is not the full story. Today, more than two million Americans suffer from opioid use disorder, a chronic, debilitating brain condition caused by recurrent use of opioids for which too few have access to effective treatment. Only one in nine people with a substance use disorder receives any kind of care, including medication-assisted treatment, the most effective therapy for OUD. MAT combines Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs with behavioral therapies such as counseling and has been proven to help individuals adhere to treatment longer, reduce illicit drug use and infectious-disease transmission, and decrease overdose deaths.

But the drugs that help alleviate symptoms associated with OUD are not readily available across the country, which makes managing the problem especially difficult. Today, only 23 percent of publicly funded treatment centers report offering MAT drugs, and less than half of privately funded treatment centers report that their health care providers make these drugs available.