Clear solutions, murky path forward discussed in Harvard panel on opioid crisis
The good news is the prospect of a one-step solution for America’s opioid epidemic. The bad news — according to former Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, speaking at the JFK Jr. Forum on Wednesday — is that taking that step won’t be easy. “The crisis is 100 percent avoidable,” Shumlin told the audience. “And the solution is to stop handing out [opioid prescription drugs] like they’re candy. Full stop, that’s what we’ve got to do.” The panel, “Examining America’s Opioid Crisis,” opened with moderator Sheila Burke, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, citing statistics to show that the description “opioid crisis” is no exaggeration. The overdose rate from prescription opioids such as OxyContin has quadrupled since 1999, and in 2015 there were four times as many deaths from opioids, both prescription and illicit, as there were from gun violence. More than 2 million painkiller prescriptions are written annually. Last year,...