Drug Policy

Drug policy covers the legal status of controlled substances, enforcement strategies, addiction treatment funding, harm reduction approaches, and the response to the ongoing overdose crisis. The United States is in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in its history: more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in each of 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 — primarily driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that have flooded the drug supply. Fentanyl is 50–100 times more potent than morphine and is now found in counterfeit pills, heroin, cocaine, and even methamphetamine, making every illicit drug use potentially fatal. The crisis began with prescription opioid overprescribing in the 1990s and 2000s, then shifted to heroin when prescribing tightened, and finally to synthetic opioids trafficked largely through the southern border and Chinese chemical supply chains. Congress has funded opioid treatment through the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) Act and subsequent legislation. Marijuana policy is another major dimension: 24 states have now legalized adult recreational use but cannabis remains a Schedule I federal controlled substance, creating legal conflicts and banking problems for cannabis businesses. Federal rescheduling of marijuana — moving it from Schedule I to Schedule III — was proposed by the DEA in 2024 but has not been finalized. Internationally, Portugal's 2001 decriminalization of drug possession dramatically reduced overdose deaths and incarceration.