Can Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree on America’s addiction crisis?  

Every week, like clockwork, another call comes…another death…another overdose…another friend or community member failed by a broken system.

With a little less than two months until Election Day, much of my time is spent stocking up on naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug, and ensuring it gets in the hands of those who need it most. I understand these calls as a signal that America’s drug crisis is far from over. In fact, on the ground, it feels like it’s getting worse.  

It is disheartening to feel like the issue is fading away with so little time left before voting begins. Buried, you could say, along with so many people I loved and cared about.  

During this summer’s disastrous presidential debate, the CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked both candidates how they plan to help millions of Americans in the throes of addiction. The answers, like many from that night, were baffling.  

Former President Donald Trump responded by discussing America’s trade deficit with China, calling President Biden a “Manchurian candidate.” When pressed to answer the actual question, he mentioned buying “a certain dog” that can “spot” fentanyl.

President Biden didn’t do much better. He emphatically repeated a line about needing more “fentanyl machines” to help border patrol agents detect drugs.

I can’t say I was surprised by these non-answers. America’s addiction and overdose crisis is constantly overshadowed in our politics. As an advocate on the front lines and a person in recovery myself, I know the human cost of inaction.

In this tumultuous 2024 campaign season, both parties have yet to make a compelling case for solving America’s deadliest drug crisis in recorded history. In the upcoming debate with an entirely new race, I hope the moderators ask the same question. Meaningful solutions to this crisis have eluded us for far too long.

It’s time for policymakers to show the American people that government can still solve complex problems. It’s good policy and good politics.

Polling consistently shows that Americans consider opioids like fentanyl a serious public health issue. The most recent Axios-Ipsos American Health Index shows opioids are tied with obesity as top threats to public health, outpacing mental health, guns and COVID-19. The Bipartisan Policy Center found that a majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents view opioids as a major crisis. Urban and rural Americans agree.  

The unanimous agreement across party lines, as well as with urban and rural voters, has to do with the fact that an estimated 48 million Americans struggle with substance use disorders, while more than 100,000 people die from overdose deaths each year. Such staggering figures means almost every American knows a friend or loved one who has struggled with addiction. Thousands of families are actively grieving. Our candidates have a chance this election cycle to implement policies and strategies with popular support.  

America’s drug problem has gone from bridging political divides to being subsumed into today’s brand of toxic political division. Over the years, I’ve seen how political rhetoric about fentanyl became more divisive and polarized as more and more people died from preventable drug overdose deaths. It’s as though, as a country, we’re trapped in the first two stages of grief: denial and anger.  

Before COVID-19, drug-related deaths were considered a generational public health crisis. But after decades of opioids wreaking havoc, I’ve noticed a waning level of sympathy and compassion. This compassion fatigue is understandable, but it must be resisted. Addiction, whether to opioids or alcohol, affects millions of Americans and families from all walks of life.

If both parties can cool down the overheated rhetoric and lean into an optimistic message of getting people the help they need, I believe the addiction issue can bring us together and once again act as a bridge for the parties. Politically, ending overdose and supporting recovery can and should be a unifying issue. 

Let’s start with treatment. Only 13 percent of people with addiction receive any kind of treatment for it, and only 11 percent of people with opioid addiction receive medications that save lives. The Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, currently introduced in the Senate, is aimed at solving this very problem. Both parties say that addiction ought to be vigorously treated, yet legislation meant to fix it is languishing without so much as a proper hearing.  

Let’s also focus on drug education and prevention. Young people today are at grave risk of encountering counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax or oxycodone, but actually contain fentanyl. These fake pills are largely why overdose mortality among adolescents jumped by 249 percent between 2019 and 2021. Many parents and young people today have no idea how dangerous the drug supply is. It’s a problem that the federal government can take bold steps to solve by funding a robust, evidence-driven national education campaign.  

Expand mobile health and telemedicine. Rural communities lack access to high quality and affordable addiction treatment. There are innovative ideas trying to address this disparity that the government can support. A state program in Colorado turned RVs into mobile clinics that drive to remote areas and treat addiction. Expanding addiction treatment via telehealth is another surefire way to close the treatment gap and ensure Americans can get help no matter where they live.  

These ideas are not new. Experts and activists constantly tell me that we already have the tools to make a meaningful dent in the crisis. It’s that we lack the political will to deploy them. But not everything about solving the addiction crisis is about politics and policy.  

Changing our language and attitudes can go a long way toward bringing the issue into the light. Whether we like it or not, substance use is an enduring fact of human behavior. It’s time we agree to heal our divides — to reduce the suffering and loneliness in our society that leaves far too many people reaching for a substance to numb their pain.  

If the parties don’t come together and get serious about this, if all we get is more polarizing rhetoric and political gridlock, then I’m afraid the calls about overdoses will never stop. I know America is better than this. And we all deserve real answers with thoughtful solutions on Tuesday when Trump and Harris face each other for the first time on the national stage. 

Ryan Hampton is a national addiction recovery advocate and author of the forthcoming book “Fentanyl Nation: Toxic Politics and America’s Failed War on Drugs”  to be released by St. Martin’s Press on Sept. 24.