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Pappas, Bacon, lead call for HHS to update opioid PHE declaration to include methamphetamines

By Staff | May 10, 2022

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) led their colleagues in a bipartisan call for the Department of Health and Human Services to update the department’s Public Health Emergency declaration that an opioid public health emergency exists nationwide to include stimulants, and especially methamphetamines.

The lawmakers wrote, “as correctly noted by the Administration, the overdose emergency has evolved into a ‘polydrug landscape.’ It is time to update the opioid PHE to reflect the current state of what is now an overdose public health emergency by expanding it to include all substance use disorders, including alcohol and stimulants such as methamphetamines.”

They continued to say, “according to the CDC, methamphetamines and other stimulants play a role in nearly half of all the overdose deaths that are associated with fentanyl. The CDC also reports that alcohol is responsible for over 95,000 deaths every year and the National Institutes of Health show that alcohol is involved in more than one-fifth of all prescription opioid deaths.”

This change would more accurately reflect the current reality of the substance use disorder crisis across our country, raise awareness of the recent increase in methamphetamine trafficking, and ensure health care workers and first responders can access the appropriate resources needed to properly combat the evolving substance use disorder crisis.

This call is supported by Responsibility.org, Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR), the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP), Young People in Recovery (YPR), Treatment Communities of America (TCA), Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI), the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC), C4 Recovery Foundation, and the Police, Treatment and Community Collaborative (PTACC).

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