Battle cry to Trump: lead the fight against opioids

Another senseless death. This time it was arguably one of the world’s most talented artists who sang one of the all-time greatest lyrics: I only want to see you laughing in the purple rain …. And yes again the cause of death was opioid overdose. 

I receive calls, texts, and e-mails from those afflicted with drug addiction nearly daily. Often I receive questions from family members and friends of those addicted, typically to prescription pain medication and heroin. A week or so ago I got the call I dread the most. A mom on the other end of the phone simply said, “Andrew, he’s gone,” and she burst into tears. Through her sobs I could make out that she found her 14 year old suburban district student athlete with an empty needle in his arm. As award winning journalist and writer Paul Grondahl put it, “heroin doesn’t read resumes.” It certainly didn’t read mine.

{mosads}As a Marine in training years ago I hurt my back during a night land navigation exercise. The pain was excruciating at times but I didn’t feel I could tell anyone — a “broken” Marine isn’t much use to anyone or so my thought process and perception went. After my tour (non-combat) as a Judge Advocate General, I joined the Justice Department’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. I eventually sought pain medication from a civilian doctor who on one visit asked me, “How many Percocet do you want?”  My addictive mind decided to start the bidding at a quantity of 90.

At the time, the drug Oxycontin came on the scene. I consider Oxycontin to be heroin in a pill form—it’s the one drug that brought me to my knees and to the brink of self-destruction. In Appalachia people were getting the drug, crushing it, mixing it with water and injecting it. As the body count rose, soon Oxycontin was offensively referred to as “hillbilly heroin.” Recently the FDA approved the drug for children as young as twelve. Fox and Friends invited me on to debate Dr. Keith Ablow about the wisdom of this move by the FDA. The debate was contentious for sure. However, the consensus of my friends in medicine and addiction treatment agreed that the decision was outrageous.

The CDC has declared the problem an epidemic, reporting that drug overdoses have doubled between 2000 and 2014. More than 60 percent of all drug overdoses involved an opioid. In the past decade the number of opioid abusers has increased by 300,000. To his credit, President Obama has increased the budget to address and fight the problem to north of $1 billion. And yet deaths by overdose continue to rise.

When I was using heroin 12 years ago, the going rate for a single bag (size of a postage stamp) was $15 to $20. Today in upstate New York, and places like Holyoke, Massachusetts, for instance, the price according to police and treatment specialists, is $3 to $5 a bag. That’s less than a cheap six pack of beer. Mix some fentanyl—an incredibly powerful opioid—with the heroin making it more potent and dangerous? The price stays the same.  So what are some possible solutions?

Enter Donald Trump and his wall. The Drug Enforcement Agency estimates that heroin and other opioids are coming from Mexican cartels that are transporting a significant portion over land using often the poor or gang members to do so. Mexican drug traffickers smuggled nearly a quarter-million pounds of heroin into the U.S. in 2014, according to The Washington Post. Sophisticated supply routes are used to get the drugs here and then they enter the distribution chain.  There can be little doubt that improved border security, and yes building the chided wall, would reduce the quantity of drugs coming into the U.S. from Mexico.

Donald Trump is no stranger to addiction. His older brother drank himself to death at the age of 43. Coming from a successful family — albeit pressure-filled with an aggressive father — Donald Trump thrived in the fast paced, high stakes game of commercial real estate. He understood that dire times required dire measures and he learned the art of warfare. His brother was built differently and did not, and ostensibly abused alcohol as a way to get by.

Unlike some other aspiring candidates who speak unpassionately about combating the problems of our national epidemic and addiction in general, I get the sense when listening to Mr. Trump discuss this issue both on a personal level and a policy level that he wants to go on the attack. For instance, his plan to secure our border with Mexico is a calculated approach to a possible solution: he is aggressively pursuing the supply problem. Three dollars a bag versus $20 a decade ago? The DEA reports that heroin is more available in every sector of the country than ever before. Whatever we currently are doing to fight the supply side isn’t working.

Like him or hate him, Donald Trump is brilliant. My liberal friends (and I have many) will have a few choice words for me, but I’ve been at this for a while. If we are going to combat the opioid epidemic, if we’re going to reduce the number of mothers finding their boys with a spike dangling from lifeless arms, then we need an absolute warrior to lead the fight. My gut tells me that is you Mr. Trump. We are counting on you for a battle plan.

McKenna is the Market Director, Northeast Region for Addiction Campuses; and is the author of Sheer Madness: From Federal Prosecutor to Federal Prisoner, a memoir. The views expressed in this article are those of Andrew McKenna and do not necessirily reflect the views of his employer Addiction Campuses.