opioids

I knew that the delivery of the Hope One Mobile Unit in March was going to be an exciting event. Born out of USDA Rural Development’s (USDA RD) partnership with the Hansen Foundation, the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office and AtlantiCare, and with the help of a $134,000 Community Facilities Grant in the summer of 2018, Hope One was expected to be staffed by medical and law enforcement personnel who would provide recovery services to people struggling with opioid addiction.

Prescription drug and opioid misuse has become a tragic epidemic with tremendous social and economic impacts, affecting communities and families of all sizes and from all socio-economic backgrounds.

This was a speech originally read by USDA’s Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett at the National Rx Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.

Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. That’s three people every hour.

As if the death rate wasn’t bad enough, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, and addiction treatment.