Biden's drug control strategy urges more 'harm reduction,' fewer barriers to treatment

April 21 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled his first national drug control strategy, which emphasizes a need to bring down overdose deaths and gives special importance to preventative efforts amid a record number of drug-related deaths in the United States.

The White House and drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta announced the strategy, which will be sent to Congress for legislative development.

Among other things, the proposal illustrates a "comprehensive path forward to address addiction and the overdose epidemic."

Biden's plan underscores the need for prevention education and treatment and prioritizes "harm reduction" for untreated addicts.

"The [plan] is the first-ever to champion harm reduction to meet people where they are and engage them in care and services," the White House said in a statement.

"It also calls for actions that will expand access to evidence-based treatments that have been shown to reduce overdose risk and mortality. Finally, it emphasizes the need to develop stronger data collection and analysis systems to better deploy public health interventions."

Biden's strategy comes at a time when opioid deaths and other overdoses are reaching record highs nationwide. The White House noted that close to 110,000 people have died in the United States over the past year due to overdoses.

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter offloads a shipment of cocaine in San Diego, Calif. File Photo by Sondra-Kay Kneen/U.S. Coast Guard/UPI

A study last week reported that overdose deaths for American teenagers aged 14-18 has more than doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A different study said that only about a quarter of Americans who need medication to treat their abuse actually get it.

"It instructs federal agencies to prioritize actions that will save lives, get people the care they need, go after drug traffickers' profits and make better use of data to guide all these efforts," the White House said of the strategy.

The plan notes that less than 7% of people who need help for substance use disorders actually get it, partly because there are so many barriers to treatment. It underscores that access to naloxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of opiate narcotics, and syringe service programs are often restricted or underfunded at the community level.

Biden's plan calls for states to change or eliminate barriers to treatment and support harm reduction.

"Some states still have legal barriers that limit access to naloxone, and even in states where those barriers don't exist, naloxone does not always make it to those most at-risk of an overdose," the White House said.

The American Medical Association and other experts have previously recommended that naloxone be available over the counter to make it easier to obtain, thereby saving more lives.

Biden's plan also would target the finances of transnational crime organizations that smuggle drugs into the United States by calling for a $300 million budget increase for both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The strategy prioritizes a targeted response to drug traffickers and transnational criminal organizations by hitting them where it hurts the most: their wallets," the White House said in its announcement Thursday.

"It also includes efforts to strengthen domestic law enforcement cooperation to disrupt the trafficking of illicit drugs within the United States and increase collaboration with international partners to disrupt the supply chain of illicit substances."

"Everyone who wants treatment should be able to get it," Gupta told reporters on Wednesday.

In congressional testimony last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said his department plans to allocate more than $10 billion for discretionary funding for programs that address opioid addiction and overdose-related activities.

Also, money from Biden's proposed 2023 budget would go toward removing the word "abuse" from the official names of federal agencies to remove harmful stigmas and stereotypes.

For example, it would change the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Drugs and Addiction. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism would be rebranded as the National Institute on Alcohol Effects and Alcohol-Associated Disorders.