Sacramento Paralyzed in the Face of Opioid Crisis

When it comes to legislation dealing with California’s opioid epidemic, it seems that the legislature’s and Governor’s motto is, “Do as little as possible.”

While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that last year’s national drug overdose rate had its first decline in decades, California’s rate went up. In fact, California’s opioid overdoses have gone up 16% since 2016. Last year, the Urban Institute estimated that nearly a quarter million Californians lacked local access to buprenorphine or methadone treatment, usually the first step in recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD).

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