In an op-ed in The Detroit News, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Mike Bloomberg write:
“Opioid overdose strikes without prejudice. We’ve both seen this firsthand. From Detroit to Grand Rapids, Staten Island to the Bronx, the epidemic isn’t just at our doorsteps — it’s inside our homes. It’s taking our loved ones at a higher rate than gun violence and car crashes, and it’s ravaging families and communities across our country.
An American dies from an opioid overdose every 11 minutes. This is a public health crisis — and a full-blown national emergency. We need a response bold enough to stop it.
In the last two years, we’ve heard a lot of talk from the White House, but we haven’t seen a lot of action. The bill recently passed in Congress and signed by the president offers piecemeal solutions to a crisis whose scope calls for a comprehensive, system-disrupting plan. It provides neither an adequate level of funding, nor the full breadth of essential services that our hardest-hit communities need in order to fight addiction and save lives.
Together, we will continue pushing the federal government to lead. But we’re not going to wait for them to act. We can’t afford to – and we don’t have to.”
Read the op-ed in full here.