Author's School

Brown School of Social Work

Author's Department

Social Work

Publication Date

3-2016

Abstract

A new poll of adults in the United States by Stat and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that just days after the passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 through the U.S. Senate, more than two in five Americans believe that the amount of money the government currently spends on treatment programs for people addicted to prescription painkillers or heroin is too low. Despite historic levels of partisan polarization, self-identified Democrats and Republicans nationwide agree not on only increases in government addiction treatment funding, but also on treatment instead of incarceration for drug offenses, and new government prescribing guidelines for strong prescription painkillers such as Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin. This may be related, at least in part, to the more than one in three Americans who believe that doctors who inappropriately prescribe painkillers bear primary responsibility for the growing problem of prescription painkiller abuse in the U.S. today.

Comments

The Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) produces a series of nationwide polls on current health and medicine issues conducted in partnership between Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and STAT News.

Language

English (en)

Document Type

Report

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