A border wall is no solution to the opioid crisis
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By John Bachtell
Over just two days in July, nine people died from drug overdoses in Franklin County, Ohio. The rash of deaths is a stark reminder of the ongoing public health crisis which has claimed over 700,000 lives since the 1990s.

This is the deadliest drug overdose crisis in US history. What will it take to end it?

For a variety of reasons, including a 34% decrease in opioid prescriptions, overdose deaths declined slightly in 2018, the first since the 1990s. Trump promptly took credit for the drop, but health policy experts are not at all convinced a turning point has been reached. They point to statistics showing some states where deaths increased.

Despite steps taken by some state governments, the response by the Trump administration and GOP dominated Congress doesn't match the scale of the emergency, say these experts.

Meanwhile, in the largest civil trial in US history taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, 2,000 government entities are suing pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and scores of doctors for creating the addiction crisis. The landmark lawsuit charges the companies knew opioids were highly addictive. It accuses them of looking the other way when they received unusually large orders that then ended up on the black market.

Unsealed court documents revealed the pharmaceutical companies...

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