Tackling the opioid crisis requires changing strategies and the way we think about addiction, says Columbia University professor Sandra Comer.
At least 100,000 people died from a drug overdose between May 2020 and May 2021 — up 22% from the year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the last two decades, nearly 1 million Americans have died from drug overdoses, with more than 70% of them involving opioids.
“One of the mistakes that people make when they think about drug users, ‘Oh, it’s somebody’s choice to have this disorder.’ That’s not true,” she said. “It’s a medical disease and we need to treat it.”
Source: CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-epidemic-experimental-vaccine-oxycodone/