It's been exactly one year since the Trump administration launched the single most impactful opioid policy initiative ever attempted in the decades-long crisis: blowing up boats in the Caribbean & Eastern Pacific to end the fentanyl crisis.
When we first launched our video game tribute to the politicians enacting this drug policy, we were in the middle of what became a two-month lull in drug boat strikes. But even if the strikes never started back up (spoiler, they did!) we felt the need to memorialize this golden age of drug policy. One where we cut or tried to cut funding from all the things that worked to lower opioid overdose deaths to one that pours money into killing people on boats in the Caribbean & Eastern Pacific AND killing the people who used drugs in the United States through willful neglect. We lost sleep wondering if all the progress would be lost just because we're running out of missiles blowing up girls' schools in Iran.
But thankfully, last week, just in time for the 1-year anniversary, the drug boat strikes are back!
So we're releasing Drug Boat, Strike!™️ with an Anniversary Edition to commemorate 1 year of great success!
Updates include:
- New stats: 1,725,000 American lives saved* and only ~$3.0 billion in costs
- New intro sequence: experience the double-tap decision that kicked off Operation Southern Spear
- New boat: Zuckerberg's $300,000,000 superyacht the Launchpad that ignored a nearby boat's distress calls
- New victory sequences: JD
Enjoy the Anniversary Edition! 🫡
Rated M for Mature
Why Trust Us?
Jonathan Stoltman, PhD
Jonathan has worked as a researcher and advocate focusing on opioid addiction treatment and recovery since 2013. He completed his PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 2019. Jonathan’s academic work has appeared in leading journals, conferences, and media outlets. He has been working on opioid settlement-related topics since 2020.
Why You Can Trust OPI
The Opioid Policy Institute exists to help communities improve their response to opioid-related death and disease. We provide evidence-based research and analysis that translates complex legal guidance and public health research into practical, usable insights. Our focus is on transparency, accountability, and community healing by increasing access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports.
OPI’s analysis reflects a collaborative, team-based approach. We blend real-world and academic experience to help ensure our work is methodologically sound, grounded in evidence, and attentive to real-world implementation challenges. We focus on asking the right questions, surfacing tradeoffs, and helping communities build robust responses to addiction.
Opioid Policy Institute by Jonathan JK Stoltman, PhD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
