By Molly Bohannon, Forbes Staff
The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy warned that—without implementation of President Joe Biden’s intervention initiatives—opioid deaths could dramatically increase to about 165,000 annually by 2025.
KEY FACTS
Biden-nominated drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta warned of the potential increase in opioid deaths at Politico’s Health Care Summit Wednesday, saying it’s crucial the administration continue to focus on addressing the opioid crisis as “there is almost no other area today (that) affects our public health, national security and economic prosperity.”
Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated about 109,000 Americans died of a drug overdose; because the data is provisional, it’s unclear how many deaths were from or involved opioids.