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| Friend, Overdose deaths continue to soar with the latest numbers showing a record high of more than 100,000 deaths over the course of just one year. This is heartbreaking and unacceptable — overdose deaths are preventable but the misguided focus on criminalization is driving this crisis. It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress has the power to shift away from deadly punishment tactics to the life-saving solutions that work. Demand that your Members of Congress act now on federal reforms that will prevent overdose deaths, provide effective evidence-based treatment, and invest in proven public health interventions. For years, we’ve been raising the alarm about the growing overdose crisis and advocating for legislation that would help curb these needless deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the problem and further revealed the urgent need for proven public health interventions. Although the Biden administration and Congress have claimed to be taking overdose seriously by embracing harm reduction approaches, they continue to push for tougher enforcement – especially for fentanyl related substances – and have stalled on taking real action on passing the laws that are necessary to save lives. With countless more lives at stake, there’s no time left to play politics and rely on the cruel and racially-motivated enforcement-first approaches of the past that have contributed to the dire circumstances we find ourselves in today. These approaches have fueled the overdose crisis by pushing people into risky situations, making the drug supply unregulated and unsafe, and wasting resources on punishment instead of harm reduction and other health-services proven to save lives. Congress can and must change course and act immediately. They can start by actually funding the harm reduction strategies they have proposed and passing the MAT Act and STOP Fentanyl Act, two critical bills we’ve been advocating for that will provide vital access to care and support people need. Force Congress to address the overdose crisis by telling them to make this life-saving legislation law right away. Lives are on the line. We need your support to prevent tragic overdose deaths by replacing failed punitive policies with health-based solutions.
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