Trumps budget makes it official: hes doing little to nothing about the opioid epidemic [View all]

[applegrove]

by German Lopez at Vox

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/23/15680096/trump-budget-opioid-epidemic

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Tens of thousands of people will likely die of drug overdoses under President Donald Trump’s watch, as America’s horrific opioid epidemic continues. Yet with his first big policy document — the 2018 budget proposal — Trump is proving that he’ll do little to nothing about the crisis.

If anything, Trump’s proposal could make the opioid epidemic worse. Where the budget does anything of significance regarding the epidemic, it comes through cuts to the office in charge of coordinating drug policy, Medicaid, public health programs, and more. And there is nothing in the budget to balance out the cuts — leaving a crater in the government’s response to a crisis that led to more than 33,000 opioid overdose deaths and more than 52,000 total drug overdose deaths in 2015.

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Drug policy advocates have said for years that the federal government, including the Obama administration, has reacted slowly to the opioid epidemic — given that it took until 2016 for Congress and President Barack Obama to pass any major legislation responding directly to the epidemic, finally adding $1 billion to drug treatment over two years through the 21st Century Cures Act. But advocates argue that the drug overdose crisis will require much more money than that, since it’s now killing more people than guns, cars, and even HIV/AIDS did at its peak.

They hoped Trump, who on the campaign trail promised to “end the opioid epidemic in America” and “spend the money” on drug treatment, would bring a bigger commitment.


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