Thread by @Headsnipe011

Opioids Battle Can Be Won, Beginning in Minnesota and in Duluth

@drawandstrike @ThomasWictor @HNIJohnMiller @jihadaeon1 @rising_serpent @_ImperatorRex_ @Debradelai @LarrySchweikart

whitehouse.gov/articles/opioi…

Smaller cities and towns carry a unique burden when it comes to drug addiction.

I grew up in Mounds, Ill. It’s a small farming community of about 800 people in the southernmost part of the state. It may seem an unlikely place for a drug epidemic,

but opioid addiction and substance abuse have plagued families there for decades. Years ago, the first of my close relatives died after a long struggle with prescription opioids.

That’s one reason why, as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, I keep the victims of this crisis close to my heart.

Under President Donald Trump, HHS has made the opioid crisis a top priority because it leaves no corner of our country untouched. When the crisis began, we worked mostly in rural areas to address overdoses and opioid-use disorder.

The opioid crisis is nationwide and claimed approximately 116 American lives every day in 2016.

Read the full op-ed in the Duluth News Tribune.

duluthnewstribune.com/opinion/column…