Narrow gap in drug treatment

The scourge of drug abuse has surged to such meteoric heights that it has now overtaken automobile accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in America. That ballooning increase has tested the limits of available treatment, and adequate medical care has eluded millions of victims.

That treatment gap continues to widen with fewer than 40 percent of drug abusers receiving medication-assisted therapy, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, sponsor of The Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment [TREAT] Act. The bill holds great promise toward narrowing that gap.

PROVISIONS OF TREAT

Among its strong provisions, the bill will enable health care providers to treat, in an outpatient setting, larger numbers of patients – 100 instead of 30 — struggling with heroin, opiate and other addictions and allow qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants to treat addicted patients as well.

Clearly this health and social epidemic transcends politics. Compassionate legislators certainly would not want 40 percent of vehicle accident victims to suffer without treatment. Similarly, they should not turn their backs on the millions of drug-dependent Americans whose lives can be saved and turned around through medical intervention.

Congressmen and women of all political stripes therefore should work aggressively and speedily to push Brown’s bill toward passage by year’s end.