Climate Disruptions Are Especially Dangerous for the Opioid Epidemic

As debates rage over how we can best protect those more directly affected by climate change, one group remains absent from the discussion: people with an opioid addiction. During environmental crises, drug users frequently experience more social and economic hardships than the rest of the population. These hardships often snowball into poor health outcomes, including death.

Authorities must start thinking about the intersection between climate change and drug use. They must design climate literacy programs for drug users, build a housing policy that considers climate change’s impact and make harm reduction programs more widely available. Read more from Scientific American here.