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Dear John,
As you may know, today is National Fentanyl Awareness Day, which falls right in the middle of the all-important National Prevention Week. We're proud to partner on this day with Song for Charlie and so many other groups doing incredible work. Ever since helping to launch the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions last September, we have dedicated ourselves to focusing on “big ideas” to move the needle and save lives. After all, a big problem requires big solutions.
That is why we have launched a Blue Ribbon Committee, with people like Drs. Jonathan Caulkins and Keith Humphreys, former ONDCP and NYPD Deputy Ben Tucker, former DEA head Karen Tandy, former Asst. Secretary of Health Dr. Howard Koh, Harvard's Dr. John Kelly, NAACP's Teresa Haley, and more to help craft a Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy in 2024. Led by our NAMSDL division chief, Michele Worobiec, J.D., and with assistance from our Senior Advisor/Consultant, Marcia Lee Taylor, our public policy team intends to help craft an evidence-informed guide for policymakers to move the needle on big ideas needed to change the trajectory of drugs in America.
Interventions that reduce immediate harm to the individual have their place, but they can’t be seen as anything more than band-aids, albeit necessary ones—not big solutions to reduce the devastation we are seeing now. Unfortunately, some have used this crisis and the need to “meet people where they’re at” to simply leave people where they’re at, and push more radical ideas, like drug legalization or oxymoronic “safe supply” policies for drugs like cocaine and heroin. (An academic review this week from Canada found failure in such policies and an expose in Canada's leading newspaper shows how British Columbia's extreme drug policies are hurting so many people.)
We can never leave people in a state of despair. We are currently working in Congress to help consolidate the various anti-fentanyl bills that would ban analogues and make it harder for drug distributors. We are working with our west coast division, led by Tom Wolf, to come up with a plan to end open-air drug markets in our cities, and we are devising plans to widen awareness and education campaigns about all drugs. We also continue to be a singular voice in the media, pushing back against the campaigns to commercialize psychedelics and further normalize marijuana (check out my op-eds in Newsweek and FoxNews.com this week).
Thank you for supporting our efforts—and more importantly, for getting the word out during National Prevention Week and today’s Fentanyl Awareness Day! (And check out the Dr. Phil clip from earlier this week below).
In gratitude,
Kevin & the entire FDPS team
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