The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) policy was proposed by the 114 th Congress in 2016 to bolster opioid prevention and treatment activities. This policy emerged as a result of the alarming National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) statistics indicating that about 128 Americans die of an opioid overdose every day, translating to 46,720 opioid deaths annually ( Blendon & Benson, 2018). The policy was also fueled by the White House's Declaration of Opioid abuse a national epidemic in October of the same year. Due to this, the policy was proposed to ensure more state funding to organizations facilitating prevention, sensitization, and rehabilitation of opioid patients.
The CARA health policy is backed by sufficient and compelling evidence regarding the state of opioid abuse and deaths in the US. While much of the evidence is statistics from NIDA and other organizations that monitor drug abuse, some of it also stems from the number of sales in opioid drugs and pain killers with opioid content (Murphy et al, 2018). Pharmacies in the US ahve attested to having exceptionally high sales of these painkillers that were perceived to be harmless ( Roberts, Gellad, & Skinner, 2016). Moreover, the policy is supported by the fact that the abuse of opioids has ramifications to the healthcare sector at large. For instance, the Centre for Disease Control informs that the skyrocketing numbers of Opioid abuse have escalated healthcare costs and overburdened the state due to increased prescription of related opioid prescriptions.
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Because of this, there is all pertinent evidence in the form of information and data proving the need for the policy. The evidence should be analyzed and be used to formulate strategic efforts to guide funding and the enforcement of measures to combat opioid abuse.
References
Blendon, R. J., & Benson, J. M. (2018). The public and the opioid-abuse epidemic. New England Journal of Medicine , 378 (5), 407-411.
Murphy, J., Goodman, D., Johnson, M. C., & Terplan, M. (2018). The comprehensive addiction and recovery act: opioid use disorder and midwifery practice. Obstetrics & Gynecology , 131 (3), 542-544.
Roberts, A. W., Gellad, W. F., & Skinner, A. C. (2016). Lock-in programs and the opioid epidemic: a call for evidence. American journal of public health , 106 (11), 1918.
