The following article by Austin Frakt was posted on the New York Times website November 27, 2017:
It’s less costly to stop drug abuse before it starts, and there are ways to do that.
It’s a shame that President Trump’s opioid commission said little about demand-side prevention.
It’s a lot less costly (both in dollars and in lives disrupted) to stop opioid misuse before it starts than to deal with its aftermath. And many prevention programs are cost effective, according to an analysis by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy.
The report from the commission last month emphasized limiting supply much more than demand — targeting opioid sources like prescriptions and the black market. That’s important, too.
But among the report’s 56 recommendations, only two aim to prevent people from seeking out opioids for no medical purpose: an advertising campaign and a structured discussion with a health professional . Neither approach has particularly strong science behind it. We wrote about the weakness of ad campaigns this month. Continue reading “Where Is the Prevention in the President’s Opioid Report?”