Obama says it's time to look at drug addiction as a health problem, not a criminal one

President Obama at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit.

(Image credit: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

published 30 March 2016

President Obama said Tuesday he hopes that by talking about opioid addiction in the United States, there will be a "greater spotlight to help solve this problem."

Obama attended the National Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit Tuesday in Atlanta, and said addiction has long been viewed as "a character flaw, and 'not our problem.' But the way we have looked at cigarettes as a public health problem, and traffic fatalities as a public health problem, if you take the same approach here, it can make a difference." Instead of looking at drug addiction "through the lens of criminal justice," it's time to "see it as a public health problem," he said, and in order to reduce demand, treatment has to be provided.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that since 2000, there has been a four-fold increase in opioid overdoses in the United States; in 2014, there were 28,647 such deaths. Obama said there needs to be changes made by insurance agencies, health care providers, and federal and state governments in order to combat addiction, and the administration announced earlier in the day it was committing $116 million to support treatment efforts. "If we don't invest in this, we're going to keep on being penny wise and pound foolish," the president said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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