Opioid crisis meeting

The opioid crisis long predates the present Adminstration, but I wasn't aware that President Trump has a commission to investigate the problem.

I only became aware of this in today's NYTimes article whining he needs to "act" not just have meetings.... But there has been a lot of stuff being done (closing the borders, arresting the drug gangs, reigining in doctors prescriptions)....and the crisis continues. So it is time for a commission to try to see if other things will work.

in other words, it didn't get in the headlines except to whine? Give me a break.

From the pain news network.

“Most terrifying is the reality that nothing we are doing today has been able to halt the spread of opioid addiction. Controlling prescription opioid medication has not done so. Prescription monitoring programs, strict limits on the number of pills physicians can prescribe, and the CDC pain management guidelines seem to have capped usage of prescribed opioid medications. But overdose deaths from heroin and highly potent synthetics like fentanyl have gone through the roof.”

but no pain patient adviser on the panel, but it does include Patrick Kennedy, whose fight with substance abuse is well known. More here:

The White House announced Wednesday that the president intended to appoint Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina to the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.
The other new members are Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman who has spoken of his own addiction issues, and Bertha Madras, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.
Trump tapped Christie, who has earned plaudits for his work on the opioid epidemic as governor, back in March to lead the commission, which did not have any other members until now. Cooper and Baker are both from states hard hit by addiction.

Medicaid is the "elephant in the room" here, says Kennedy.

Well, yes. But the real elephant in the room is the culture wars.

there are tens of thousands of churches in the US: How many have outreaches and how many preach on this? Some Catholic churches sponsor AA type programs, on the other hand, I have never ever heard a sermon on the moral aspect of the problem...WWJD