In his State of the Union (SOTU) Address, President Joe Biden addressed the decades-long opioid epidemic.
In doing so, he became only the second president to outline some type of plan to combat deaths from overdoses. Over 100,000 Americans died from overdoses between April 2020 and 2021.
More importantly, Biden acknowledged a vital key to tackling the crisis: harm reduction. He remarked that the United States must increase “funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery.” Harm reduction is vital for addressing the opioid epidemic, but it also must be applied to an ever more deadly epidemic: smoking. Unfortunately, efforts by American public health agencies and billionaire philanthropists refuse to acknowledge tobacco harm reduction.
Each year, an estimated 480,000 Americans die from disease and health ailments related to tobacco products, namely combustible cigarettes.
Lindsey Stroud – Townhall – 2022-03-18.