As civilization ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, trapping humans like caged mice, addiction expert Keith Humphreys could only agonize over the collateral damage. America was already losing the war on addiction with 70,000 annual overdose casualties, even after a decade-long battle against opioids.
The opioid death rate spiked by nearly 40% in the first year of the pandemic, and in 2021 U.S. overdose deaths topped 100,000 for the first time in history. With all available public health resources and mental energy diverted to a virus and a vaccine, millions of struggling Americans—many already self-medicating with addictive substances—had little respite from a range of homebound conditions, from isolation to captivity with an abusive partner.
In fact, since the Stanford-Lancet Commission released its 50-page report on the North American opioid crisis in February of 2022, Humphreys, the chair of that 17-person collective has been on a whirlwind tour.Humphreys has advised the Biden administration, state legislatures, the Canadian parliament and even the British prime minister on policy adaptations that could finally change the opioid narrative and, he hopes, the way addiction is treated.
Humphreys spoke about the hopeful signs as well as the challenges in shifting the addiction paradigm.
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