This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, September 8th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

As the pandemic moved forward, drug overdose deaths increased at a fast clip.

Cato Institute's senior fellow and physician Jeff Singer says government

responses to overdose deaths have largely misunderstood the problem, especially at a time

of extreme isolation for people dependent on and addicted to drugs, Singer argues that

harm reduction can bring people out of the shadows and help save lives.

Before the pandemic began, what was the general trend in overdose deaths and what were the

components, the drugs themselves that were contributing most to overdose deaths?

Well, after a slight pause, let's say, in 2018,

the overdose death rates started right back up again.

For the last several years, the major component of opioid-related overdose deaths

has been fentanyl, followed by heroin. Prescription drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone

that have been what's called diverted into the black market for non-medical use

had been a major component in the earlier part of this century, but for the last

several years, largely because all of the policies have been aimed at getting doctors to prescribe less prescription opioids and reducing prescriptions.

That's made less available to be diverted into black markets.

So non-medical users have just moved over to more available drugs that are much more dangerous

such as Fentanyl and heroin. So for the past several years the

component of the total opioid-related overdose death

numbers has been decreasingly

prescription opioids and increasingly fentanyl and heroin.

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