Surgeon General Addresses Nationwide Opioid Abuse During Stop In Oklahoma City

The U.S. Surgeon General visited Oklahoma City on Monday as part the federal response to the rise in opioid addiction.

After touring Catalyst Behavioral Services, Dr. Vivek Murthy said more funding needs to be available for treatment, physician prescribing practices need to improve, and naloxone – a medication which blocks opioids’ effects – should be more widely available. He said the country needs to address the stigma associated with addiction.

“If I told you that we were going to build a cancer treatment center or a heart disease treatment center in your community, most communities wouldn’t object to that,” Murthy said. “But when you say, hey, we want to build a treatment that will provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, not every community is comfortable with that. That has to do with how we think about addiction.”

Since 1999, the number of opioid overdose deaths has nearly quadrupled in the United States.

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