Battling the Opioid Overdose Crisis: This Author Believes the Best Help Comes from Communities, Businesses and Especially Believers

Josh Shepherd : Aug 1, 2018
The Stream

What people of faith can glean from this is that they are members of the community, just like the heroes in this book are. They can band together and bring about change at the local level. When I talked about companies being engines for change, or community leaders, religious leaders can certainly be as well.

[Stream.org] This summer, one of the most hotly discussed topics on Capitol Hill has been the opioid crisis. The term describes how illicit drugs and the misuse of prescription opioids have led to widespread addiction. (Image: Screenshot-YouTube/via The Stream)

Nationally, the CDC has reported a spike in drug overdose deaths. Currently one in five deaths among young adults is linked to opioids. While fatalities from opioid painkillers such as OxyContin are now in decline, deaths from chemically similar illegal drugs such as heroin are rising.

Concern about this public health crisis crosses all political lines.

Congressional leaders have responded to the fallout. State governors have taken action, with particular progress in Arizona and Michigan. In June, the Trump Administration launched an ad campaign to students on the dangers of opioids. (It was funded partly by President Trump donating his salary.)

New York Times reporter Barry Meier first uncovered this emerging crisis in 2001. His book "Pain Killer" outlined the complex factors at play by showing how one small Virginia town had been impacted. This spring, a fully revised version of "Pain Killer" reveals the current crisis and potential solutions. The proposals may be surprising coming from a New York Times journalist.

"This problem is not going to best be solved [by] government," said Meier at The Hudson Institute last week. "It's going to be best solved by companies, community leaders—by people like ourselves—who are going to demand that people who are in pain and people who are addicted receive good, compassionate treatment."

After nearly 30 years at the Times, including winning a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, Meier recently retired to pursue other writing endeavors. In an interview, he shares the personal stories behind the crisis... and signs of hope in America's heartland.

Hard Facts, Tragic Stories

The Stream: A lot of people may hear the phrase "opioid crisis" and not realize the number of lives at stake. What is the extent of this crisis over the past two decades?

Barry Meier: This crisis has ballooned over the past two decades. When I first started reporting on this in 2001, there were approximately 16,000 drug overdose deaths per year—particularly prescription opioids at the time.

Today, the number is 64,000 deaths per year. We've had a quadrupling of the number of people dying of overdose deaths. For many years, it was "catching up" to car crashes and other causes of accidental death; then it hit a point where it outstripped those...

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