John,

Oftentimes, our public institutions lag in their responses to urgent social problems. The poster case for that is the opioid crisis.

By now, the magnitude of this emergency is well known. Every 4 and one-half minutes, that's how often someone dies in America due to an opioid overdose.

It seems like no home is safe from this scourge. Not ours. Not many of our neighbors.

Much of this is driven by fentanyl, the synthetically created drug that is as incredibly cheap as it is addictive. I've seen reports of it selling for 50 to 75 cents a pill.

So, families and communities and the legislature struggle with responses. Measures like requiring naloxone (an anti-overdose medicine) in every high school (yes, it has come to that). Or funds to train dogs to detect fentanyl. Or providing more support for treatment.

But it all seems so inadequate compared to the epidemic proportion of what is going on here. And it is within the context of a behavioral health system that we have allowed to signficantly deteriorate.

Take the example of one addict's stated request for rehabilitation help. "I think we can get you a treatment bed," came the response. "But first you need to be assessed . . . and that will be several days."

Several days in an addict's life is, well, a lifetime. Treatment never happened.

This is an emergency. Not a "kind of" emergency but a real, honest to goodness emergency.

And we shouldn't wait another four and a half minutes to respond.

Denny

If you, or a loved one, are seeking treatment for substance abuse, please call the national substance abuse and mental health helpline at 1-800-662-4357. Your call is confidential, free of charge, and will be answered 24/7, 365 days a year.
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