Should Drug Companies Be Held Responsible for the Opioid Crisis?

What’s the story?

• A new poll by NPR and Ipsos finds that 57% of Americans believe pharmaceutical companies should be held responsible for making the opioid crisis worse.
• These are sentiments shared by the president, who vowed on Wednesday to take on drugmakers in his administration’s efforts to end the opioid crisis.

"We are holding Big Pharma accountable," Trump said at the 2019 Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta. "I couldn't care less, they have to do what's right."

What’re the numbers?

The NPR/Ipsos poll found:

•  72% of Americans know someone who overdosed on opioids.
• 62% know someone who’s been addicted to pain medication.
• 70% support making drug companies pay the cost of addiction treatment services and cover the cost of the overdose drug naloxone.
• 57% of Americans say pharmaceutical companies should be held responsible for making the opioid crisis worse

Source: NPR/Ipsos poll of 1,510 respondents in the US and DC metro area conducted April 12-17. The nationally representative sample, weighted to include the DC area in proportion to the total population is 1,015. The credibility interval for the overall sample is 2.9 percentage points. Totals may not add up to 100% because of rounding.

Credit: Thomas Wilburn / NPR

What do you think?

Should pharmaceutical companies be held responsible for making the opioid crisis worse? Take action above and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto / Moussa81)