Manuel Balce Ceneta\/Associated Press by CARMEN PAUN – 10\/27\/2024 04:00 PM EDT<\/p>\n
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Traffickers are to blame, the candidates say. Virtually no one\u2019s talking about treatment.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Harris and Trump campaigns said the presidential candidates are talking about drug treatment, albeit more quietly than they are border security. |<\/p>\n There\u2019s a rare point of agreement among Republican and Democratic candidates this election year: America has a drug problem and it\u2019s fentanyl traffickers\u2019 fault.<\/p>\n Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, are hammering Democrats over border policies they say have allowed fentanyl to surge into the country. Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, respond that they, too, have cracked down on traffickers and want stricter border enforcement.<\/p>\n The consensus reflects the resonance of border control among voters \u2014 most of the country\u2019s fentanyl comes from Mexico \u2014 and a hardening of the nation\u2019s attitude toward addiction. Troubled by drug use, homelessness and crime, voters even in the country\u2019s most progressive states favor cracking down. Politicians from Trump and Harris on down the ballot say they will.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that people don\u2019t want in their community,\u201d said Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Democrat running for a fourth term representing a district including suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut, and rural areas to their west, of illicit drugs. \u201cThey want a tough-on-crime stance on it. They want it to go away. They\u2019re afraid for their families, they\u2019re afraid for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n That view worries public health experts and treatment advocates, who see a backsliding toward the law enforcement focus that once looked futile in the face of Americans\u2019 insatiable appetite for drugs. They fear it bodes ill for additional efforts from Washington to expand addiction care.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of things that both parties can point to, as far as progress that\u2019s been made in addressing overdoses: We\u2019ve seen bipartisan efforts to expand access to treatment, to expand access to health services for people who use drugs, and I wish they would talk about that more,\u201d said Maritza Perez Medina, federal affairs director at Drug Policy Action, an advocacy group that opposes the law enforcement-first approach.<\/p>\n Six years ago, when a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the SUPPORT Act to inject billions of dollars into treatment and recovery services, and then-President Trump signed it, the vibes in Washington around drug use were more empathetic.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency in October 2017. | Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images But after it passed, fatal drug overdoses driven by illicit fentanyl skyrocketed, hitting a record 111,451 in the 12 months ending in August 2023 before starting to recede. Homelessness, sometimes tied to drug addiction, also spiked.<\/p>\n When the SUPPORT Act came up for renewal last year, Congress wasn\u2019t as motivated. The Democratic Senate hasn\u2019t voted on a bill, while a House-passed measure from the chamber\u2019s GOP majority offers few new initiatives and no new money.<\/p>\n Attitudes are similar in the states. Oregon, where voters legalized drugs for personal use in 2020, reimposed criminal penalties this year after its largest city, Portland, was overrun with homeless drug users. Polls indicate California voters, frustrated, too, by homelessness and crime, are likely to boost penalties for drug users by ballot initiative next month.<\/p>\n Candidates aim to prove they share voters\u2019 frustration.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Republicans have spent more than $11 million on TV ads in the past month attacking Democratic opponents on fentanyl trafficking, according to a tally by tracking firm AdImpact. And Democrats have spent nearly $18 million defending themselves, mostly by highlighting their efforts or plans to provide more resources and personnel to combat trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an easy shortcut in a 30-second commercial to tie a broader issue to one that has an easy explanation,\u201d said Erika Franklin Fowler, a professor of government at Wesleyan University who directs a project analyzing political advertising.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s not talking about the SUPPORT Act, one of his most consequential legislative successes. Vice President Kamala Harris is not touting the treatment policies of the president she serves, Joe Biden, who expanded access to medications that help people addicted to fentanyl, as well as to drugs that can reverse overdoses. Some public health specialists credit increased access to the drugs with reducing overdose death rates in the past\u00a012 months after years of grim ascent.<\/p>\n Trump used his first anti-Harris ad this summer to blame her for the more than 250,000 deaths from fentanyl during the Biden-Harris administration.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris met state attorneys general in July 2023 to discuss possible actions against fentanyl. | Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images Harris responded by touting her prosecution of drug traffickers when she was California\u2019s attorney general and a promise to strengthen the border.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s her plan,\u201d a deep-voiced narrator intoned in Harris\u2019 ad: \u201cHire thousands more border agents, enforce the law and step up technology \u2014 and stop fentanyl smuggling.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A political cudgel\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Similar attacks and responses have played out in Senate and House races across the country.<\/p>\n In the tight Arizona race to replace Sen. Kirsten Synema (I-Ariz.), Republican Kari Lake has accused her opponent, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, of empowering drug cartels to import fentanyl by supporting Biden-Harris administration border policies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re losing an entire generation of people, and you should know better, Ruben,\u201d Lake told Gallego in a debate earlier this month, referencing the deaths of teens who took counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.<\/p>\n Gallego, who was elected to Congress in 2014 as a progressive but has shied from that label in his Senate run, responded by touting bills he\u2019s supported or introduced to fund more technology at the border and track fentanyl money flows across Mexico and China, where chemicals to make the drug are manufactured.<\/p>\n A mother visit her son’s grave, who died of a fentanyl overdose at 15. | Jae C. Hong\/AP In Colorado\u2019s hotly contested 8th congressional district, which encompasses Denver suburbs and rural areas to the north, Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans has blamed the incumbent, Democrat Yadira Caraveo, for the fentanyl crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our reality now: a 100 percent increase in fentanyl deaths because liberals open the border, legalize fentanyl and let criminals out of jail,\u201d\u00a0says a police officer in an ad for Evans. \u201cAnd Yadira Caraveo voted for it all,\u201d Evans adds.<\/p>\n Caraveo defended herself in a debate with Evans earlier this month, noting the bill he\u2019s referring to was state legislation that \u201ctried to balance the need to punish drug dealers and cartels but not incarcerate every single person that is addicted.\u201d<\/p>\n In Connecticut, the National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Hayes for voting against a bill to permanently subject fentanyl to the strictest government regulation, reserved for those drugs with high likelihood of abuse and no medical uses.<\/p>\n Hayes said she opposed the bill because it included mandatory minimum prison sentences for people caught with drugs and no provisions supporting prevention, treatment or harm reduction.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate that this is being used as a political cudgel because we\u2019re missing out on an opportunity to say: \u2018How do we address the root causes?\u2019\u201d Hayes said in an interview.<\/p>\n Hayes said she has responded to the attacks on the campaign trail and talked to constituents about the need for treatment, despite some advice to the contrary.<\/p>\n \u201cEven amongst Democrats, there were people who were like: \u2018You don\u2019t want the headache, you don\u2019t want people to think that you\u2019re soft on crime or soft on drugs.\u2019 And I was like: \u2018This has to be about more than optics if we truly are trying to save people\u2019s lives,\u2019\u201d Hayes said.\u00a0\u2018If we don\u2019t keep the momentum going\u2019<\/p>\n Oregon, where voters legalized drugs for personal use in 2020, reimposed criminal penalties this year after its largest city, Portland, was overrun with homeless drug users. | Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images The lesson the Drug Policy Action\u2019s Medina takes from the campaigns is that talking about drug treatment doesn\u2019t sell in American politics.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are struggling. Social services aren\u2019t where they need to be, health services aren\u2019t where they need to be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to run a fear-based campaign rather than talking about really tough issues,\u201d like breaking the cycle of addiction.<\/p>\n Ironically, the tough talk on the border comes as policymakers, for the first time in years, have evidence that the tide of fatal drug overdoses is receding.<\/p>\n The CDC estimates that overdose deaths, most caused by fentanyl, declined by nearly 13 percent between May 2023 and May 2024, to just under 100,000.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Harris\u2019 running mate, Tim Walz, mentioned the dip during his debate with Trump\u2019s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, earlier this month.<\/p>\n The number is now about where it was when Biden took office, though still 50 percent higher than when Trump did in January 2017.<\/p>\n Expanding access to treatment, the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s decision to make the opioid-overdose-reversal medication naloxone available over the counter last year, increased fentanyl seizures at the border, and the arrest and sanctioning of Mexican drug cartel leaders have contributed to the recent drop, Biden said last month.<\/p>\n Advocates for drug treatment say that\u2019s all good cause for candidates to tout their access-to-treatment efforts and promise to expand them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst outcome for overdose prevention coming out of this election would be if we don\u2019t keep the momentum going,\u201d said Libby Jones, who leads the Overdose Prevention Initiative, an advocacy group.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s not the groundswell of interest on Capitol Hill that there was in 2018, when Congress passed the SUPPORT Act.<\/p>\n Congress has continued to fund opioid treatment authorized in that law, but it mostly hasn\u2019t taken the law\u2019s 2023 expiration as an opportunity to increase funding or try big new ideas.<\/p>\n The Food and Drug Administration decision to make the opioid-overdose-reversal medication naloxone available over the counter last year has contributed to a drop in fatal overdoses over the past year, President Joe Biden said last month. | Diane Bondareff\/AP The 2024 federal funding law Congress passed in March included some minor changes in the form of bipartisan legislation to require state Medicaid plans to cover medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder. It also created a permanent state Medicaid option allowing treatment of substance use disorder at institutions that treat mental illness, in an effort to expand access to care.<\/p>\n But bipartisan legislation approved by the Senate committee responsible for health care to make it easier for others to gain access to methadone, a drug effective in helping fentanyl users, hasn\u2019t gone to the floor and faces opposition from key Republicans in the House.<\/p>\n The Harris and Trump campaigns said the presidential candidates are talking about drug treatment, albeit more quietly than they are border security.<\/p>\n Vice President Harris\u2019 campaign pointed to her web site, where she touts her prosecution of drug traffickers and the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s investment in \u201clifesaving programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly said \u201cPresident Trump is uniquely able to connect with families combating addiction,\u201d pointing to times when he\u2019s talked about his brother\u2019s struggles with alcohol use disorder and to his administration\u2019s efforts to contain the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n But she added that the tough talk on the border is relevant: \u201cCombating fentanyl is a public health issue and stopping it begins with securing the border.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/10\/27\/fentanyl-drugs-elections-00185576<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manuel Balce Ceneta\/Associated Press by CARMEN PAUN – 10\/27\/2024 04:00 PM EDT Traffickers are to blame, the candidates say. Virtually no one\u2019s talking about treatment. The Harris and Trump campaigns said the presidential candidates are talking about drug treatment, albeit more quietly than they are border security. | There\u2019s a rare point of agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,82,64,104,40,36,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-economic","category-health","category-political-sector","category-prevention-research","category-treatment-addiction","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}