As the opioid epidemic has gotten worse, lots of Arkansans have waited to see what kind of response would come from Washington. President Donald Trump announced his plan Monday afternoon to stop opioids from killing more people.
His plan included several components, including seeking the death penalty for high-volume drug traffickers; pursuing federal lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies that encourage overprescribing of opioids; reducing the number of prescriptions by a third within the next three years; creating an advertising campaign to discourage opioid use; immigration reform to prevent immigrants from bringing drugs into the United States; increasing access to naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose; and increasing funding for the research and development of non-addictive pain medication that can replace opioids.
President Trump returned multiple times in his speech to the idea of threatening drug dealers and traffickers with execution. He said that their actions lead to the deaths of thousands of people, so harsher punishments may deter them.
“If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we’re wasting our time,” he said. “Just remember that, we’re wasting our time. And that toughness includes the death penalty.”
“I understand his outrage,” J.G. Regnier said. Regnier is a licensed counselor for alcoholism and drug abuse. He has worked with clients for 30 years, and says the escalation of the opioid crisis is dramatic.
“I’d bet I went to 17 funerals last year of kids I’ve known or come in contact with and they died of either a oxycontin overdose, or a heroin overdose, or the carfentanil and the fentanyl,” he stated.
He still disagrees with President Trump’s call to execute drug traffickers. “I don’t know that there’s any proof in our country that the death penalty deters anything,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s the opposite.”
President Trump focused much of his announcement, made during a rally in New Hampshire, on punishment: for traffickers; for the pharmaceutical companies and doctors responsible for overprescription; for illegal immigrants and the politicians who lead sanctuary cities that allow them to reside in the country. Regnier said he wished more of the president’s focus had been on the addicts and their families who suffer because of opioids.
“There’s a lot of culprits in this, but we, I’d like to see us get focused on the solution,” Regnier stated. “And I think the solution is more treatment, more counseling.”
President Trump announced the launch of CrisisNextDoor.gov, a website that allows people to share the stories of how opioids have impacted them. He also wants a marketing campaign to share the horrors of opioid abuse, saying that scaring kids out of using them may be the least expensive thing the government can do to prevent overdoses. He claimed that similar campaigns have reduced the number of people who smoke tobacco.
Regnier argued that while anti-drug ad campaigns may not cost much, they often do not work. “Well, look at Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No,’” he stated. “No, I don’t believe that that’s effective.
“I think there’s been some studies showing that, like, if you give younger people too much information, that there’s kind of a glamorization, and it doesn’t really teach them, it doesn’t act as a prevention method. It actually creates interest.”
The only action promised by President Trump that Regnier supported was to increase access to naloxone. Many paramedics, firefighters, and police officers carry it in case they are the first to reach someone during an overdose. President Trump said he wanted more of them to have it and receive training to use it.
“I’ve had one client of mine that would be dead by now if it weren’t for Narcan, you know. Three times in one week, he overdosed,” Regnier mentioned. “I’ve got one right now, just walked in my office this past week, that’s overdosed 11 times. Yes. You’re looking at me like you can’t believe it, right? You think they would learn, right? But the drug has them. The drug has a hold on them.”
The CEO of Adapt Pharma, which sells naloxone as NARCAN, said during the event in New Hampshire that it would provide two doses to every high school in the nation, and four doses to every college and university.
“Until we get better methods, I think, or employ all the good methods together in one place, we’re gonna need a whole lot of that NARCAN,” Regnier said.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 115 Americans die every day due to opioid overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that all the costs related to opioid abuse total $78.5 billion per year.
“It’s in the Heights, it’s in Chenal, it’s everywhere,” Regnier said. “I’ve buried kids from all the good neighborhoods, as well as the bad.”