On Wednesday, Dr. Wen joined Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli, National Association of County and City Health Officials Executive Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, as well as leaders and advocates from across the country for the final event in the White House's Making Healthcare Better Series on Substance Use Disorder.

“It was an honor to be in the company of so many federal, state, and local leaders who are ensuring that substance use disorders are treated with the same compassion and urgency as other diseases,” Dr. Wen said. “Now is the time to make our voices heard, to make sure that the next administration builds on the progress made. We must continue with science-based approaches to affirm that addiction is a disease; treatment exists; and regarding it as a moral failing is unethical and inhumane.”

Dr. Wen shared progress made in Baltimore to eliminate stigma and save lives from overdose. Last year, she issued a standing order to give all Baltimore City residents access to naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication. Since then, nearly 17,000 residents have been trained and have saved the lives of 531 Baltimoreans.

In January, Congress lifted a decades-long ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs and clinics. Since then, the number of programs has skyrocketed, driven in large part by the opioid epidemic. Programs have popped up in states that might never have considered them -- or might even have actively opposed them -- only 10 years ago. “Kentucky has gone from zero to 11 programs,” says Daniel Raymond, policy director at the Harm Reduction Coalition. “Florida authorized a program in Miami -- and we thought they would never have one.”

The goal of needle exchanges, in which drug users hand in their used syringes for new sterile ones, is to reduce the number of infections from diseases like HIV and hepatitis -- illnesses that are transmitted through the sharing of contaminated needles.

Needle exchanges, long credited with helping to slow the spread of infectious diseases by public health experts, have made inroads in recent years, even in states traditionally opposed to them.

A ban in federal funding for needle exchanges was lifted earlier this year. States including Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia have made it easier, or in some cases possible for the first time, for programs to operate. Even Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who resisted needle exchanges on moral grounds, repealed a ban on syringe exchanges as governor of Indiana when confronted with an HIV outbreak (albeit too slowly for many experts).

New data released by federal health officials Tuesday further demonstrated the value of needle exchanges, suggesting they had contributed to a major reduction in new HIV infections among people who inject drugs.

But the report also included some warnings. There aren’t enough needle exchanges or clean needles being supplied, and few drug users use only sterile syringes, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Plus, changes in the demography and geography of drug users suggest problems to come.