Rahul Gupta is President Biden's nominee to tackle rising opioid deaths in the USA
In 2020, more than 93,000 Americans died of drug overdose, 29% higher than in the previous year and double the number from six years earlier. Since 1999, the epidemic has been responsible for more than 841,000 deaths in the U.S., according to government data.
This week President Joe Biden nominated Rahul Gupta to tackle the major social problem. Gupta will assume the role, if confirmed by the Senate, which appears very likely. The 30-year standing position was dubbed “drug czar” by then-Senator Biden in 1982.
As the U.S. Director of National Drug Control Policy, Gupta’s job will be to promote public health and safety measures to address drug use, reduce its social and economic consequences and help Americans recover from drug addiction.
Nearly three quarters of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. are due to synthetic opioids, including pain-killers sold by pharmaceutical companies. The rest of the deaths are caused by heroin, psychostimulants such as methamphetamine and other drugs.
Some of Gupta’s critics publicly opposed him for the role of national drug policy director, when it was first mentioned in the media in March. The policy of syringe sharing under Gupta’s leadership of the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health resulted in Charleston having “what CDC says is the most ‘concerning’ HIV outbreak in the US,” Robin Pollini, a professor at West Virginia University told Filter.
Gupta’s nomination is backed by both U.S. Senators from his home state of West Virginia, Joe Manchin, Democrat, and Shelly Capito, Republican, several state officials and lawmakers from both parties.
“During his time in West Virginia, Dr. Gupta led the way in our battle against the opioid crisis,” Republican Jim Justice, governor of the state, said in a statement. “I believe that there is no one better-suited to this important job than someone who represented a state and a people where this crisis really hits close to home.”
This week, President Biden also nominated Atul Gawande as the Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development.
In 2018, Rahul Gupta took over as the Chief Medical and Health Officer at March of Dimes, a U.S. philanthropy promoting health of mothers and babies. “State and federal data show that the health of pregnant women and babies in this country is getting worse,” said Stacey D. Stewart, president of March of Dimes, while announcing Gupta’s appointment.
From 2015, Gupta was the Commissioner and State Health Officer in West Virginia. He led the state’s opioid crisis response and launched several health initiatives, such as a program to identify high-risk infants and efforts to tackle women smoking during pregnancy.
Earlier from 2009, Gupta led the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department in West Virginia. A specialist in internal and preventive medicine, he was an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University and on the visiting faculty at TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles.
Gupta, who was born in India, is the son of an Indian diplomat. He grew up in Maryland and the suburbs of Washington D.C. At age 21, he completed medical school at the University of Delhi.
He did his internship and residency at St. Joseph Hospital, Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a global master’s of business administration degree from the London School of Business.
Gupta’s wife, Seema Gupta, is has been a physician in the U.S. Veterans Administration for over a decade. They have identical twin sons, Arka and Drew, who majored in economics and neuroscience respectively from Yale University.
The rising deaths from drug overdose brings lots of political and media attention to the role of the national drug policy director. However, the annual budget for the department was slashed to around $400 million a year by Republican President Donald Trump.
In contrast, the 2016 budget under Democratic President Barack Obama was $15 billion, the largest in U.S. history.
Biden’s Democratic administration is expected to revoke Trump’s budget cuts as well as add new funding to fight the rise in drug addiction and deaths. Previously made a cabinet level position by President Bill Clinton, in a move praised by Biden at the time, the cabinet designation was revoked by Obama in 2009. Despite his previous support, Biden is unlikely to restore the position to a cabinet level.
Speaking of his potential role, in a statement to The Washington Post, Rahul Gupta said, “As a physician, I have seen firsthand the heartbreaking toll of addiction…we can save lives if we understand the individuals behind the statistics and…with high-quality, evidence-based care and services.”