Opioid crisis needs more attention

Americans have rightfully been disturbed in recent days by stories of immigrant children being separated from their families at the border. Yet our nation’s opioid epidemic has been tearing families apart for years — including many here in Florida — with little notice from network and cable TV news.

One reason for the disparity: Pill and heroin addicts apparently don’t make for good ratings.

The most pressing public health problem of our time has received less TV news coverage this month than the Russia probe, Melania Trump’s jacket and comedian Tom Arnold’s latest project. This, despite ever-growing fatal overdose totals.

Even when lawmakers passed legislation last week aimed at combating the opioid scourge, national TV news gave the subject little coverage. Experts say the legislation does not do nearly enough, but with only rudimentary press attention being paid to the issue, lawmakers have little incentive to do more.

Our national TV media seems capable of focusing on only one big story at a time. Until these newsrooms make coverage of opioids a daily priority, addicts and their families have little chance of receiving the kind of coverage — and attention from lawmakers — they so desperately need.

Lord knows, they’re more deserving of it than Tom Arnold.

KEVIN DEUTSCH, WEST PALM BEACH