This administration has been very clear for the first time in the history of the United States

federal government.

We have made harm reduction the central tenet of how we need to move forward.

That is Rahul Gupta, he is director of National Drug Policy at the White House.

The mission basically is to reduce the prevalence as well as the harms from illicit drugs across

the nation and address it from a global standpoint.

When Gupta talks about harm reduction, what is that?

You could think of harm reduction as not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

You could think of it as public health realism.

Do you remember the just say no anti drug campaign from the 1980s?

Harm reduction is pretty much the opposite of just say no because just say no is not been

working.

We're seeing over 108,000 Americans dying in any given year from either a drug overdose

or poisoning.

Most of those overdoses are from opioids, including black market fentanyl.

Gupta is also an internal medicine physician and he has a lot of experience with opioid

deaths.

He used to be public health commissioner of West Virginia.

When I became commissioner of health, West Virginia had the highest death rate from overdoses.

Historically, it was very important for me to look at why that's happening.

He commissioned an analysis that covered every West Virginia who died of an overdose.

Half of the victims who had received medical treatment, Gupta found, could have been saved.

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