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Almost 64,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016, a shocking 54 percent increase since 2012. Dangerous opioids such as heroin and fentanyl contributed to two-thirds of the deaths. This killer knows no geographic, socioeconomic or age limits. It strikes city dwellers and Midwestern farmers, Hollywood celebrities and homeless veterans, grandparents and teenagers. Remarkably, law enforcement efforts actually declined while deaths were on the rise. Federal drug prosecutions fell by 23 percent from 2011 to 2016, and the median drug sentence doled out to drug traffickers decreased by 20 percent from 2009 to 2016. The Trump administration is working to reverse those trends. Prosecutions of drug traffickers are on the rise, and the surge in overdose deaths is slowing. Unfortunately, some cities and counties are considering sponsoring centers where drug users can abuse dangerous illegal drugs with government help. Advocates euphemistically call them “safe injection sites,” but they are very dangerous and would only make the opioid crisis worse. (Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, 8/27)

Americans are often a disputatious sort, earnestly quarreling over virtually anything from abortion to what body posture is patriotic. So, it’s a valuable reminder and encouraging as a nation now and then to take note when we do succeed in quietly working out serious issues together without searing political struggles. Progress may be erratic. And it may take some time to sort out our ethics and what’s right to forge a lasting social consensus. But in the end, it’s worth it and our society is better and stronger for it. Such is the case now with what used to be called the right to die. We saw dramatic evidence in recent days when 81-year-old John McCain’s family announced that after more than a year of battling an aggressive brain cancer, he was stopping treatment and letting nature take its course. He died the next day. (Andrew Malcolm, 8/27)

 In his posthumously published bestseller, “Factfulness”, author Hans Rosling warns, “There’s no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear.” Before the passing of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Saturday, he made a choice. On Friday evening — as I read the reports that he had chosen to forego aggressive treatment for his brain tumor — I was reminded of how emotions often drive the facts of a situation. Commentators and pundits were quick to point out that John McCain will “no longer receive treatment.” Reading many of these headlines, some readers — who are not familiar with the medical system — assumed that McCain’s caregivers are abandoning him. The danger with this is that such confusion can distort the quality of end of life care discussions physicians can have with patients and their loved ones. (Junaid Nabi, 8/27)

Like many Americans, I have a story about hospice care for a loved one. When my father was dying from complications of dementia and diabetes, hospice caregivers sat with him, provided pain relief, and helped him be comfortable. They also gave my mother peace of mind that her beloved husband was receiving kind attention in his final weeks. To this day, she refers to those hospice workers as angels. Sadly, not every family’s story is a positive one. ...The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, for which I work, recently published a report examining hospice practices over a decade. It showed that hospices do not always provide the services that patients need and sometimes provide poor-quality care. We also found that patients and their families often do not receive crucial information to make informed decisions about hospice care. (Joanne M. Chiedi, 8/28)

“No one deserves to die over playing a video game, you know.” That was the comment of one of the people who managed to escape from a gunman who shot up a gaming tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. The same thing also should be said about sitting in a classroom, praying in church, listening to country music, dancing at a nightclub, retrieving luggage, going to work. Sadly, though, in the United States, these and other routines of everyday life carry the risk of tragedy from gun violence. And so, once again, the question must be posed of what it will take to get Congress to confront this problem. (8/27)

After every national shooting tragedy, gun lobbyists and the lawmakers beholden to them say it's politicizing tragedy to talk about gun laws. But for the victims in Jacksonville and the nearly 100 Americans who die from gun violence every day, it’s too late. We need stronger gun laws — solutions such as a background check on every gun sale, keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and passing red-flag laws across the nation. Many of these solutions are proven by data to save lives, and some are also popular with voters — gun owners and non-gun owners alike. (8/27)

Hawaii rarely encounters hurricanes; none have made landfall since 1992. Yet within three weeks this month, Hurricane Hector sideswiped the islands and Hurricane Lane flooded them. Homeowners who lack sufficient insurance will now expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make their houses habitable again. But if recent history is any guide, Hawaiians should brace themselves. When FEMA rules conflict with local ones, the agency’s legalistic argle-bargle sometimes requires a decade to sort out.Hurricane Harvey shows what can go wrong. It lumbered through Texas, unloading 5 feet of rain, one year ago. Yet 8% of survivors have not returned to their homes, as per a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study. Some low-income families had their aid requests denied by FEMA because of “insufficient damage” to their homes. But FEMA also denied aid to homes with roofs blown off or mold creeping up the walls. (Parker Abt, 8/27)

After Hurricane Harvey lashed its way through Houston, everyday people got to work to rebuild. This is a "can do" city, Mayor Sylvester Turner reported in CBS’s “Face the Nation” last September. “We're not going to engage in a pity party. We are going to take care of each other. Neighbors are taking care of each other.” ...But what about our mental health? Post-traumatic symptoms often appear months to years following disasters, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Clearly then, only one year out, our communities have only begun to mentally process the effects of Harvey. But while physical rebuild efforts have now been handed over to skilled laborers, we should not expect the same for our city’s mental health. (Joy Vonk, 6/28)

Last week a paper was published in The Lancet that claimed to be the definitive study on the benefits and dangers of drinking. The news was apparently not good for those who enjoy alcoholic beverages. It was covered in the news media with headlines like “There’s No Safe Amount of Alcohol.” The truth is much less newsy and much more measured. (Aaron E. Carroll, 8/28)

The announcement that New York University is abolishing tuition for its medical students elicited surprise and joy from the incoming class of 2022 (and pangs of jealousy from students like us who had chosen to go elsewhere for medical school). Some pundits see this as the first of many tuition dominoes to fall. Given the financial investment that a school needs in order to forego tuition as a source of revenue, an analysis we performed suggests that many schools won’t be able to pull that off. (Daniel Thomas, 8/28)

[T]here is a bipartisan bill in Congress, supported by nearly half of the Senate already, that would strengthen our response to Alzheimer’s. The Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (S. 2076/H.R. 4256) would provide state, local, and tribal public health officials with the funding and resources necessary to increase early detection, diagnosis, and improve data collection around Alzheimer’s disease. ... As the most expensive disease in America, Alzheimer’s will cost the country $277 billion in 2018, but it also imposes shattering financial and emotional costs on unpaid caregivers. If passed, the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act would also support the needs of caregivers and support care planning for people living with Alzheimer’s. (Leah Acuff-White, 8/24)