More Action Needed Against Drug Abuse: Poll

(By Lisa Gillespie for Kaiser Health News)

The fight against the growing abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin is not robust enough at any level — not federal and state governments’ efforts or those of doctors and users themselves, according to most Americans in a new poll out Tuesday.

Lack of access to care for those with substance abuse issues is a major problem, said 58 percent of those surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the Foundation.)

The poll found that Americans had somewhat different views of heroin and prescription drug abuse. More than a third called heroin abuse an extremely serious health problem in the U.S., while just over a quarter of those surveyed said the same about the abuse of strong prescription painkillers. In contrast, fewer than a fifth regarded alcohol abuse in the same way. Read article here….

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Notice: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link’s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.