Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center
Waukegan, Illinois
As Prepared for Delivery
Good afternoon, everyone. It’s great to be here in Illinois. I want to start by thanking a few folks who made today happen:
- Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) for his leadership on this issue in Congress
- Mark Pfister, Executive Director Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center
- Retired Fire Chief Tim Sashko, Lake County Board of Health President
- And all the people who have worked so hard to make the Lake County Health Department and Community Center a center of excellence.
Today, we’re here to discuss a crisis that has taken far too many lives in Illinois and across the nation.
Synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, stimulants -- like methamphetamine and cocaine -- and other drugs are harming our citizens at an alarming rate.
From 1999 to 2019, the rate of overdose deaths increased 250 percent.
And the pandemic has only made things worse. In 2020, 93,000 deaths were attributable to drug overdose. That’s more than a 30 percent increase from the previous year. And it’s more than double the number of Americans who died in motor vehicle accidents.
Illinois has not been spared. Overdose deaths skyrocketed in the Chicago area and across the state during the pandemic.
But numbers don’t tell the full story.
We see it in the faces of grieving families and overworked caregivers.
We hear it in the blaring sirens and panicked 911 calls.
We read it in the obituaries of sons and daughters gone too soon because help came too late.
For decades, our society tried to stigmatize and punish those with addiction. But we know the so-called “War on Drugs” was actually just a “War on People.”
Stigma doesn’t save lives. Stigma induces silence, secrecy, and fear. In the words of one Chicago man, who lost his twin brother to an overdose, “Don’t judge a person’s actions before you understand their struggle.”
That’s why last month, we rolled out a strategy that changes course and gives people the help they need.
Our new HHS strategy aims to prevent all overdoses.
We want to address the full spectrum of drug use and addiction that can result in overdose and death.
Most important of all, this strategy focuses on people. It’s compassionate and inclusive. It eliminates barriers and advances equity.
And it reflects this Administration’s commitment to empowering the very individuals who have struggled with addiction.
Our strategy consists of four priorities:
- Primary Prevention;
- Harm Reduction;
- Evidence-Based Treatment; and
- Recovery Support.
All four pieces of this strategy are guided by the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to equity. And they build on the work we’ve already done to prioritize prevention and expand access, including removing barriers to prescribing medication for substance use disorder (SUD) and making the single largest resource investment in history to support SUD services.
But it’s the harm reduction and recovery support aspects of our strategy that I want highlight right now—because this holistic focus is novel and innovative at the federal policymaking level.
Overcoming addiction is not easy and it rarely happens overnight.
And where we can’t prevent someone from using these substances, we should at least be trying to make sure we prevent severe consequences like death.
According to a recent study by Northwestern University, more than 75 percent of overdose deaths in this state happen before emergency personnel even arrives.
That means we need to be helping people reduce harm while they fight their addiction, not pushing them into the shadows.
We know that evidence-based harm reduction strategies can save lives.
When someone decides they want to use drugs more safely, they are saying that they care about whether they live or die and are taking the first step to ending their addiction.
That’s why our Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is allowing federal grant dollars to be used to purchase fentanyl test strips; it’s why we’re considering how to make naloxone widely available, including over-the-counter; and it’s why we’re providing $30 million dollars for harm reduction grants to states and localities for community-based overdose prevention efforts.
Recovery support is equally important. And I’m proud that we’ve established the first-ever national recovery office.
For many, recovery is a lifelong process. And we want to show folks that we’re going to be there for them for the long-term—not just when they’re on the edge of the cliff, but also once they start walking that path to recovery and beyond.
One Chicago woman fighting addiction has committed herself to helping others in her neighborhood. She wakes each day with one mission: “You won’t die on my watch.”
At HHS, we share her mission. Our goal is simple: Save lives and get people the help they need. And our new strategy should send a loud and clear message: We’re serious about tackling this crisis. We’re not just offering lip service—we’re taking action.
What’s more, our strategy will help us make progress on other critical priorities, including our renewed commitment to improving behavioral health.
The time for stigma and blame is over.
Now is the time for compassion and inclusion.
With that, I’d like to turn it over to Congressman Schneider.
