Biden's drug czar warns on overdose deaths

US President Joe Biden's drug czar has warned that the United States could have 165,000 deaths per year from drug overdoses by 2025 if the crisis isn't brought under control.

Dr Rahul Gupta, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, gave the warning this month at a health summit sponsored by the news site Politico.

"There is almost no other area today, where it affects our public health, national security and economic prosperity than the opioid crisis," he said.

The prediction means that more than 55,000 more people would die per year of drug overdoses than did in 2022. Gupta described it as a "matter of life and death", saying that at least 46 million Americans struggle with addiction.

Gupta said that the Biden administration has several initiatives in place to address the opioid crisis, and if implemented, they could halve the number of people dying each year.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that last year 109,680 deaths were due to drug overdoses. That was 2 percent higher than the 107,622 overdose deaths in 2021.

Data also show that the largest number of drug overdoses in 2022 were due to fentanyl and synthetic opioids. Fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under age 50 than suicide, homicide or cancer, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.

To address the opioid issue, Biden launched his "National Drug Control Policy" last year. In April, the administration expanded on the policy by saying it was aiming to "save lives by disrupting the trafficking of illicit fentanyl and its precursors into American communities''.

The White House said that the US Customs and Border Protection agency had seized nearly 240,000 pounds of illicit drugs at the nation's borders, including 19,289 pounds of illicit fentanyl and 148,362 pounds of methamphetamine between January 2022 through December 2022.

It added that domestically, other federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies had seized at least 290,000 pounds of illicit drugs, including 32,510 pounds of fentanyl before it reached communities. The administration said it represents nearly $2 billion denied to drug producers and traffickers.

Support has also been given to expand access to naloxone, which reverses opioid-related poisonings. Emergency medical services responded to 394,777 naloxone activations nationwide in the 12 months ending December 2022, the White House said.

To disrupt drug trafficking, the White House said that Biden had requested $46.1 billion from Congress for national drug control programs, a $5 billion increase from fiscal year 2022 and a $2.3 billion increase over fiscal year 2023.