Negli Stati Uniti le morti per overdose sono passate dai 47000 decessi del 2014 agli oltre 76 mila casi registrati tra aprile 2019 ed aprile 2020. E le cose paiono destinate a peggiorare.

Federal health officials say the drug crisis has only been amplified by months of social isolation, high unemployment and the diversion of resources to combat the virus.

“Since the pandemic hit we have not been able to control the opioid epidemic,” said Nora Volkow, the long-serving director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in an interview. “Our vulnerabilities have just gotten worse.”

Quali saranno le mosse dell’Amministrazione Biden? Malgrado in passato abbia appoggiato politiche securitarie è opinione comune che invece ora il nuovo presidente preferisca un appoggio più incentrato su prevenzione e recupero, trattandolo come un tema di salute pubblica. Ma per Dan Goldberg e Brianna Ehley di Politico la strada è tutta in salita.

Biden, who often spoke during the campaign about his son Hunter’s struggles with substance abuse, has called for record investments in drug prevention and treatment while also holding drug companies accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic.

But his $125 billion treatment plan could face resistance in a bitterly divided Congress that for months has failed to agree on a coronavirus relief package, even as infections soar and jobless claims rise.