The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported a devastating 108,000 overdose deaths in 2021. Despite more than 10 years of successful efforts to reduce opioid prescribing, the overdose death rate, which began its exponential rise in the late 1970s long before opioids were liberally prescribed, continues its incessant climb.
In contrast, Germany, second only to the U.S. in opioid prescribing, has not seen overdoses go up this century. And Canada, ranked third in opioid prescribing, has an overdose rate more than a third lower than the U.S. One reason is that both countries have long embraced harm-reduction strategies toward drug abuse.
Harm-reduction strategies avoid measures that exacerbate the harms the black market inflicts on nonmedical users and focuses strictly on the goal of reducing the spread of disease and death from drug use. From Surgeon General Jerome Adams in the Trump administration to Rahul Gupta, the Biden administration’s “Drug Czar,” policymakers have begun to appreciate and promote harm reduction. But state-level drug paraphernalia laws stand in the way.
# Reprinted with permission. Dr. Singer's piece can be read in its entirety here.
Jeffrey Singer
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Reason Foundation, where he focuses on health care policy and drug policy. He is President Emeritus and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics, Ltd., Arizona's oldest and largest private group surgical practice. From 2017 to 2026, he served as a senior fellow in the Cato Institute's Department of Health Policy Studies and as a Visiting Fellow at the Goldwater Institute. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health and serves on the expert panel for Doctors for Drug Policy Reform. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018. His writings have appeared in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, as well as in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill, and National Review. He has been a guest on national and local television and radio. Singer received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
