Gingrich and Kennedy unite in a bipartisan effort to combat opioid addiction
On Monday, June 27, 2016, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy spoke to Yahoo’s Stephanie Sy about joining forces to tackle the country’s opioid epidemic, and offered their thoughts on the upcoming 2016 conventions.
Gingrich and Kennedy, along with political activist Van Jones, have launched the bipartisan nonprofit Advocates for Opioid Recovery, which calls for better access to recovery medications like buprenorphine and naltrexone to treat addicts and reduce addiction rates nationwide. “Something which was a minor problem 25 years ago … has now become, in many ways, one of the major public health crises in American society,” Gingrich explained.
Though some argue that treating drug addiction with more drugs may perpetuate our dependency problem, Kennedy, a former addict now in recovery, said, “Like nicotine addiction, we don’t treat it with abstinence alone. We have nicotine patches. … Let’s take this canard on that it is somehow beneath recovery to talk about medication. That is the big misnomer and myth that we need to hit head on.”
As for who should foot the bill, Gingrich argued, “This is not a problem of bad people or lack of will — this is a medical problem. It is a clear biological addiction and ought to be paid for within the same system, not as an outlier, but exactly the same pattern that would pay for statins or insulin or treating pancreatic cancer.”
Despite the divisive rhetoric Americans are witnessing both on the campaign trail and within the chambers of Congress, Kennedy and Gingrich believe opioid addiction is a cause that can unify the parties. “Last time I checked, mental illnesses and addictions affect both Democrats and Republicans,” Kennedy contended. “So everybody’s affected. Rich and poor. Black and white. Old and young. Every part of the country. So this should be something that unites the country.”
As far as the 2016 election is concerned, Gingrich, a popular contender for VP on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s ticket, is looking forward to the upcoming Republican National Convention. The former speaker has been vocal about Trump detractors, and he doubled down on his belief that those who can’t support the nominee should skip the convention altogether. “The anti-Trump crowd now wants to turn every single Republican delegate into a superdelegate who ignores the votes,” Gingrich argued. “I think that’s the exact opposite of the way the modern world is going.”
Kennedy, a Democrat, also weighed in on his party’s upcoming convention and Bernie Sanders’ potential influence at the event. “Obviously he has to play a role at the convention,” Kennedy said. “But I think there’s so much that holds us in stark contrast to our Republican friends, that I think that there’s plenty to unify around.”
