Biden, Cynicism and the Opioid Crisis

At this point, it is irrelevant to list down what Donald Trump failed to address during his tenure as the president of the United States of America. What is relevant — especially to those affected by the continuing opioid overdose crisis — is what president-elect Joe Biden plans to do about it, and more importantly, more realistically, what we should expect underneath the same old campaign trail big talk about changing the system and making big stakeholders accountable.

On paper, Biden’s plan to stop the raging opioid overdose crisis is promising and commendable (giving the people a reason to breathe and relax their grip on their opioid crisis medication bags) — from holding big pharma accountable to putting a more stringent protocol on drug prescription to stemming the flow of illicit drugs imported from foreign countries — but for those who spent years inside the system, those who became cautious and saw the value of having custom medication bags to keep drugs from those who abuse it, those who have been working hard to reverse the tide and failing over and over again because there is no real decisive and deliberate action to stop the opioid overdose crisis coming from the federal and national government, it is hard to believe that things will turn finally around.

It was described as ambitious and expensive, and that alone raises red flags in terms of its realistic chances of becoming real among those who have long accepted the reality that the opioid overdose crisis could be one of the most important socio-economic problems in the US that were left unattended, at the cost of loss of life and degrading quality of life for those severely affected by it.

There were high hopes towards the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, but against a juggernaut of a crisis, it is not enough.

For Biden to cement his legacy as a true American leader, he needs to put his mark on the opioid overdose crisis.