About 91 lives are lost each day to the opioid epidemic. Over 64,000 Americans died in 2016 from overdoses—that's a higher death toll than the number of American casualties from the Vietnam War. A history of over-prescriptions and the nature of the prevails of drug usage led too many Americans down paths of a dangerous addiction.

A 60 Minutes/Washington Post story was released recently that outlined the opioid crisis and Washington’s role in it. A bill was signed into law during the Obama presidency that essentially hindered the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to investigate pharmaceutical companies that were manufacturing and distributing suspiciously high amounts of opioids.

The bill was pushed through with unanimous consent—a situation that should have only been reserved for uncontroversial issues. But the result is unsurprising, as the pharmaceutical industry has spent almost $250 million lobbying on Capitol Hill, and the bill was promoted in a way that hid its implications.

The pharmaceutical industry's practices are the roots of the crisis.

Much more money is spent on marketing drugs than researching them, and as such opioids were advertised to be less addictive than their reality, sparking the epidemic and continuing to fuel it with Washington as an accomplice.

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Tom Marino, was unveiled to have been a major advocate for the bill. Even more, ironically, the district that Marino represents has been one of the hardest hit by the opioid crisis.

The exposé enraged the American public and completely shifted tones in Washington. In response, President Trump will very soon declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency, and Tom Marino has withdrawn his nomination for drug czar. The corruption that started in the Obama administration almost continued into the Trump administration.

If the exposé hadn’t come to light and garnered the attention that it did, would Washington have just continued their nonchalance on the worst drug crisis in American history? Would they not bat their eyes at the 500,000 projected deaths due to overdose for the next decade?

The whole situation is a summation of what Americans despise about Washington.

Politicians can be incentivized to respond certain ways by funds for their personal interests. They willingly disregard important issues so long as it goes unnoticed.

But maybe Washington turned a blind eye because the American public was also largely ignoring the issue. We have stigmatized not only the drugs but also the people affected. Opioid abusers live among us, in our neighborhoods, but we turn away at any sight of fresh needle scars.

Opioid addiction has become a mere statistic; it's time we put human faces on the problem.

Many current addicts are suffering because of past over-prescriptions from doctors and dishonest pharmaceutical marketing. The policies in place that limit drug prescriptions have led them to seek alternatives in heroin, opium, and other illegal drugs of the sort.

The addicted are suppressed by shame and fear leaving the shadows—and the reluctance is intensified by the shortage of treatment available. It is much easier to get drugs than treatment, in physical availability and mentality, and that needs to change.

A democracy and its elections are not perfect, but the system is bettered when the people are informed and speaking out.