Pubdate: Wed, 04 Nov 2015
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Heather Haddon

DRUG DEATHS BECOMING A 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ISSUE

New Hampshire Poll Participants Put It Above Jobs and Economy As 
Something Candidates Should Address

Buddy Phaneuf, owner of New Hampshire's largest funeral home network, 
has overseen burials and cremations in more than 50 heroin-related 
deaths this year. The average age of the decedent: 32.

Christopher Stawasz, manager of an ambulance service in Nashua, said 
the city set a record of 28 overdoses in September, then topped it 
with 37 in October. "It's surreal,"  he said. "It's just day after day."

Across the state, overdoses are on track to break last year's record 
of 326 deaths. The pattern is so alarming that participants in an 
October WMUR Granite State poll ranked drug abuse as the most 
important issue in the 2016 presidential campaign, surpassing jobs 
and economy for the first time in eight years.

That is prompting a conversation in the state with the nation's first 
primary that is remarkably different from prior elections in its 
expressions of compassion rather than condemnation.

Seizing on the new openness, substance abuse advocates plan to push 
presidential candidates from both parties to focus on drug-abuse and 
mental-health issues and host forums on the topics. Former Reps. 
Patrick J. Kennedy (D., R.I.) and Jim Ramstad (R., Minn.), two men 
who have struggled with addiction and become advocates since, are 
co-hosting the effort, with an official kickoff planned for 
Manchester next Tuesday.

The effort, called the NOW Campaign, is expected to have a budget of 
at least $3.5 million and to hire staffers in early primary states to 
push on the issues, a spokeswoman said.

"It is the most heartbreaking thing in the world to have to go 
through,"  said Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, during a 
New Hampshire town hall meeting in September. His daughter, Noelle, 
was arrested for trying to illegally buy prescription drugs and 
attended mandatory drug treatment.

Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina has opened up to 
voters about the hardship of losing her daughter to heroin addiction, 
and Sen. Ted Cruz has written about losing his half-sister to a drug overdose.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made substance-abuse 
treatment a hallmark of his campaign, often speaks of losing a law 
school friend to prescription pills. "I got a phone call that they 
found him in a hotel room with an empty bottle of Percocet and a 
bottle of vodka," Mr. Christie said during an event at a New 
Hampshire drug-treatment facility.

Among Democrats, Hillary and Bill Clinton have both spoken 
emotionally about the prescription pill-related death of a 
28-year-old State Department intern while she served as secretary in 
2012. The Clinton Foundation has launched an initiative to cut 
prescription-drug deaths in half.

Carol McDaid, co-founder of a Washington lobbying firm that is 
focused on addiction issues, said "no one would have talked about it 
publicly that way before this year. It was always in hushed whispers."

Political strategists haven't typically advised candidates to broach 
substance-abuse treatment on the stump, as it can prompt questioning 
of any prior record of drug use. During this year's debates, however, 
candidates as diverse as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running 
in the Democratic primary, and Mr. Bush have admitted to smoking 
marijuana in the past, and faced little fallout from it.

As drug abuse has moved away from crack cocaine and to prescription 
pills, the burden of addiction has also gravitated from inner cities 
to rural and suburban communities. Republican presidential candidates 
Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky, and Mr. Christie have both 
declared the "war on drugs"  a failure - rejecting a stance that has 
defined the party for four decades.

"It's starting to seep into the Republican side of thinking," said 
Greg Glod, a policy analyst for Right on Crime, a conservative 
advocacy group. "You don't have to feel like you are soft on crime anymore."

Nationally, drug overdoses now account for more deaths in the U.S. 
than motor vehicle accidents, with 52% attributed to prescription 
medications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. Health-care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for 
pain medications in 2012, according to the CDC. Many patients who get 
hooked on pain pills later turn to heroin to achieve the same high, 
health officials say.

The abuse has become an economic problem for states and the private 
sector. Substance abuse led to an estimated $176 million in workplace 
productivity losses in New Hampshire, according to a 2012 report. In 
rural parts of Virginia, employers invited to economic forums have 
ended up talking about their inability to find enough workers who can 
pass drug tests, said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.

The Obama administration announced $100 million in new funding for 
drug-addiction measures in July, an amount some advocates viewed as 
too little. Last month, President Barack Obama announced new opioid 
training requirements for federal doctors, but said much more needed 
to be done.

"We're going to have to build and fund and support more treatment 
centers,"  he said while speaking at a substance abuse forum in West Virginia.

Mrs. Clinton has proposed a $10 billion criminal-justice initiative 
that includes increasing drug-treatment grants to states. A Senate 
bill to change sentencing laws for certain drug offenses has received 
bipartisan support and is moving through committee. A separate Senate 
bill addressing how pain medications are prescribed was introduced 
earlier this year with some Republican co-sponsors. South Carolina 
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican running for president, has 
co-sponsored both bills.

Republican Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas said he has personally met 
with eight presidential candidates to assess their views on how to 
combat drug abuse, and will consider endorsing later in the year. "I 
think they are listening,"  he said about the candidates. "Mothers 
are knocking on my door on a constant basis for help. If it hasn't 
touched you yet, it will."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom