Tone of fentanyl hearing suggests Congress taking demand‐side approaches seriously

An expert on the public health implications of the fentanyl crisis who testified before a U.S. House subcommittee this month reports being pleasantly surprised over a bipartisan focus on demand reduction on the congressional panel. Concerned that the hearing would unfold as a political event around targeting China as the source of the fentanyl problem, University of California, San Francisco professor Daniel Ciccarone, M.D., M.P.H., observed instead that members of Congress are starting to read the science and are realizing that policymakers cannot simply “supply‐side” their way out of the crisis.