Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton confessed that throughout the years of her being first lady, then senator and Secretary of State, she learned one thing for sure: heavy drugs like heroin and painkillers kill Americans and the tendency still remains. So do her counterparts from the Republican Party, as some candidates revealed their own personal connections with the epidemic.
In September, Clinton proposed a plan costing $10 billion to help 23 millions of those afflicted with drug addiction after her meeting with a retired doctor who urged her to tackle the increase in heroin use that replaced opioid prescription analgesics as the narcotic of choice in some US cities and rural areas.
The year 2013 marked the moment when overdose deaths reached the record breaking number of 46,000 people. Statistics say that every 15 minutes someone in the US dies from drugs, alcohol or pills, and more Americans die from overdose than car accidents.
On October 7, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at a news conference in New Hampshire revealing a story about his classmate who ended up addicted to painkillers after a back injury. The rich, successful man lost everything including his wife, job and home, and died alone in a motel room surrounded by empty bottles of vodka and Percocet, a prescription painkiller.
"Somehow, if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, 'They decided it, they're getting what they deserved,'" Christie told AFP.
"I'm pro-life, and I think that if you're pro-life you've got to be pro-life for the whole life, not just the nine months they're in the womb," Christie emphasized in a speech to conservatives.
Republican presidential candidate Carla Fiorina called for allocating more funds to drug treatment after sharing her own story during the Republican debate in September.
"My husband Frank and I buried a child to drug addiction," she said recalling her step daughter who died in 2009 after years of struggling with alcoholism and an addiction to pills.
She suggested recognizing addiction as a chronic mental illness requiring long-term treatment.
Noelle Bush, daughter of Republican candidate Jeb Bush, niece of former US President George W. Bush and granddaughter of the 41st President George H.W.Bush, was arrested 13 years ago for prescription fraud.
"It is the most heart-breaking thing in the world to go through," Bush said while promoting expanded drug treatment.
In October, President Barack Obama visited West Virginia, the state with the highest rate of overdose deaths where he said "Prescription drugs become a gateway to heroin."
At Obama's behest, insurance companies were called on covering addiction treatment, but according to some pundits the requirement is slow to be implemented.
