‘J.D.’s Mom! J.D.’s Mom!’

In a time of international unrest, with cold and hot wars raging between and among the U.S., its allies, and hostile foreign nations like North Korea, Russia, and Iran, it is easy to forget that we have an ongoing deadly battle raging here in the homeland: that waged by fentanyl, prescription opioids, heroin, and the like against ordinary American families. And we are losing. In 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a “national public health emergency” because “[n]obody has seen anything like what is going on now.” But since that declaration, more than 454,000 deaths related to opioids have been recorded by public health officials. Consider that there were approximately 405,000 U.S. military deaths during the whole of the Second World War. Or, as the conservative economist Oren Cass recently commented, “Americans are now dying from drug overdoses at a higher rate than the Russians died from alcohol use disorders in post-Soviet Russia’s worst years.” 

The deaths alone do not capture the true human toll in the United States of the crisis. According to one estimate, between 2011 and 2021, more than 320,000 American children lost at least one parent to an overdose; many were left orphaned. As Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute writes, “based on the outcomes, policymakers appear to have more or less given up” on fighting the drug war.

Against this grim record of almost constant defeat, the campaign of Senator J.D. Vance offered one symbolic victory. During the Republican National Convention, he dedicated time to recognizing his mother, Beverly Aikins. Ms. Aikins struggled for many years with drug and alcohol abuse, but has now been clean and sober for almost a decade. After Vance announced her ten years of victory over addiction to the audience, there was a loud chorus of “J.D.’s mom! J.D.’s mom!” 

Ms. Aikins is well-worth celebrating. According to a profile written by Salena Zito for the Washington Examiner, Ms. Aikins was able to tame her addiction with the help of a 12-step program through Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. Due to what must have been incredibly hard work on her part, she was also able to get back the nursing license she lost because of her addiction. Even more unusually, she was able to rebuild the family ties that had been broken, including being able to play a role in the lives of her grandchildren. She now works as a nurse helping others at a substance-abuse treatment center.

As the millions of Americans who have family or friends that struggle with addiction know, the kind of recovery achieved by Ms. Aikins is unfortunately rare. Most people in treatment for substance abuse relapse. Opioid use disorder is particularly difficult to treat, with a relapse rate possibly as high as 91 percent. Even for those who do achieve and maintain sobriety, rebuilding careers and ties with family and friends is an uphill battle. 

One factor that can help? Hope. Addicts who have hope for the future, according to scientific studies, are significantly more likely to achieve and maintain sobriety. For example, one study found that among a group of participants who had used opioids for (on average) more than 14 years, “high levels of hope had a protective effect on the rate of relapse … during the study period.” As another scientific paper put it: “Hope may be an important part of recovery from substance abuse, a goal that must be pursued with incredible willpower given repeated challenges.”

But too often, our society offers little hope to the people struggling with addiction and their families. Earlier this fall, I spoke with Jackie Lewis, who is raising her granddaughter after her son and his girlfriend both passed from drug overdoses. Lewis told me that when her son first became addicted to prescription painkillers as a teenager, “[I]n society back then, this thing was really looked down on. There was such a terrible stigma….” 

Lewis’s son, an “extremely intelligent, a very good-hearted young man” who “loved people” struggled with addiction for almost 20 years. Ms. Lewis spoke repeatedly to me of the stigma and condescension he faced from others. Instead of hope, he received messages of shame and defeat. 

We rightly celebrate Memorial Day, remembering our fallen during American battles over the last 250 years. There is no Remembrance Day for those lost to the opioids, and perhaps we don’t want one. It might be too painful and bleak—and a national holiday focused on the lost could destroy the hope addicts and their families desperately need to achieve recovery. But during the GOP convention, Vance suggested that his family might celebrate the official tenth anniversary of his mother’s recovery at the White House in January 2025. 

This is a campaign promise he should keep. The office of vice president comes with few formal powers, but certainly encompasses the ability to encourage a country still grappling with the devastating toll of opioids. Indeed, our scientists tell us doing so might help with recovery. Let’s celebrate “J.D.’s mom” and the others who have beaten addiction and encourage them, their families, and those still struggling a little farther along the road.