To Tackle the Opioid Crisis, America Needs the Office of National Drug Control Policy

Washington, D.C.– The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic affecting millions of Americans. The federal response to such a widespread public health crisis requires sophisticated coordination and planning between state, local and federal levels—services the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has experience providing. Based on the need to ensure results-oriented accountability, proposals to reauthorize the ONDCP should earn broad bipartisan support, Anand Parekh, BPC senior medical advisor, said in testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

“The crisis, 20 years in the making, will get worse before it gets better. Fortunately, there are evidence-based interventions and solutions that if scaled by the combined efforts of the public and private sectors can bend the curve of the epidemic,” Parekh said.

“The federal response must include a comprehensive supply-side and demand-side strategy that is funded appropriately, promotes interdepartmental coordination and collaboration, and includes specific measurable goals and timelines. With this in mind, I am pleased to see this Committee’s bipartisan discussion draft to codify provisions relating to ONDCP,” said Parekh.

“In order to comprehensively tackle the opioid epidemic, it is critical that states and communities have a federal partner that is itself coordinated. While this epidemic is a public health crisis, the federal response is one that demands not just HHS making it a priority but each and every executive branch department as well,” he said.

Read his full testimony.