As the US Department of Justice reports in a press release, Attorney General Sessions announces ‘Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit’ (OPA), the world’s media is speculating what it will take to stop an opioid epidemic from becoming a global pandemic.

As a specialist in delivery strategic change, with executive expertise in both the public and private sectors, it’s clear to me that there are three strategic pillars to this problem:

1. Enforcement
2. Treatment (rehab) and
3. Policy

Readers will see that I’ve been struggling today to add my two cents worth of comment to some of today’s mainstream media articles on opioid abuse. I worry that journalists are not adding sufficient value, with ‘me too’ stories, concatenating quotes from ‘so-called’ experts, light on analysis, conclusions and recommendations.

In the hyperlinks to the above three points, I’ve summarized the scientific research literature, ranked by the number of citations.

Clearly political leaders are behind the curve of the emerging pandemic and should be exploring radical policy options for both enforcement and treatment.

Perhaps, it’s time for an international drug policy initiative, along the lines of that deployed to divert the 2008 Financial Crash ?

Thoughts?