Do you have an election hangover? Try taking this bipartisan pill

What’s your mood this morning? Exhaustion? Relief? Joy? Despair?

It will take a while to sort out this divisive midterm election. Want good news? It will take at least a week or two for the 2020 campaign to start.

Finding green shoots in the fire-ravaged fields of our political system can be hard. Last month, however, came one example of how a dysfunctional Congress actually could make the less system less combustible.

The issue is a big one: the opioid scourge. Between 1999 and 2016, about 200,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. Most were opioid-related. Last year alone, the death toll was 72,000, with two-thirds related to opioids.

The issue also is bipartisan. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 68 percent people who identify as, or lean, Republican consider drug addiction “a very big problem.” Among those who identify as, or lean, Democratic, it’s also 68 percent.

Still, Congress has been slow to act. So has President Trump, even though the scourge is worst in areas that supported him strongly.

But in October, Congress responded. Lawmakers passed the Support for Patients and Communities Act. The margin in the House was 393-8. In the Senate, it was 98-1. President Trump signed it.

The legislation does some good things. Among them:

-- It lifts restrictions on Medicaid reimbursement for patients who receive substance treatment in facilities with more than 16 beds. The rule had been in place to prevent warehousing of patients.

-- It allows more health care professionals to prescribe drugs for opioid addiction and gives states more flexibility in how they allocate money to fight it.

-- It expands a program through which first responders can obtain naloxone, the drug that can revive people who overdose. Delray Beach was one of the first cities to equip first responders. Though naloxone -sold as Narcan -- is effective, the cost has strained city and county budgets.

-- It toughens penalties for drugmakers related to overprescription of opioids and gives authorities more ways to track shipments of illegal opioids.

Unfortunately, the law doesn’t do what experts consider most important: allocate lots of money for what the nation’s drug czar under presidents Nixon and Ford considers a deadlier threat than AIDS.

Indeed, critics note the difference in money for opioid addiction compared with AIDS, which has killed nearly 640,000 Americans since 1981. Congress responded with the Ryan White Act, which this year alone will provide $2.34 billion in grants. President George W. Bush responded with the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has saved millions of lives in Africa.

One estimate is that the country will need $100 billion over 10 years for opioid addiction, much of that for treatment. That’s how much Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, DMd., proposed in their legislation.

“This reflects a fundamental disagreement between the parties over whether the government should appropriate the large sums a massive response would require,” Keith Humphreys told Vox Media. Humphreys, who teaches psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, worked with congressional staffers on the legislation.

Humphreys acknowledged that the legislation includes “many ‘small sanities’ that will make a positive difference.” Unable to agree on money, Humphreys said, “Congress did the next best thing -- which is to find agreement on as many second-tier issues as they could.”

So what happens now? Will Congress get to that first-tier issue? One lawmaker thinks so.

“It’s not one and done. We’ve stepped up to the plate and we’re going to have to keep working at this.” That was Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Her state has the nation’s highest overdose death rate.

Here’s the comment from Trump, who beat Hillary Clinton by 42 points in West Virginia. Trump held a rally in Ohio for Sen. Rob Portman. His state has the second-highest rate of overdose deaths. Trump praised Portman and said the bill had “very little Democrat support.”

In fact, the nine votes against the bill all came from Republicans. One was Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Pensacola, who brayed that the legislation expanded “Obama care.”

Washington has fallen into a pattern where talk matters more than results. For weeks, both parties have told voters what’s wrong with the other side. Somehow, they now must find a way to work with the other side. Send your 150-word letter to letters@SunSentinel.com. By mail: 333 SW 12th Ave., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442. Please include your name, addresss and phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and become property of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.