Opinion: A huge step backward on opioids

The latest statistics on the overdose crisis — roughly<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/02/upshot/fentanyl-drug-overdose-deaths.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"> 64,000 deaths</a> in the United States in 2016 — also reveal that fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now the driving force behind US overdose deaths. Fentanyl is an opioid estimated to be<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/opioids/fentanyl.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"> 50 to 100 times</a> more powerful than morphine, and it’s often added to heroin to increase its potency. Sadly, just as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/heroin-war-on-drugs-parents.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">bipartisan consensus</a> was emerging that a punitive approach to drugs was not the way forward, lawmakers are responding to fentanyl by prioritizing prison over public health and embracing discredited drug war policies proven to make the crisis worse. <a href="https://medium.com/@cnn/opinion-a-huge-step-backward-on-opioids-685d332bc328">Visit Now</a>