President Trump says he is ready to declare the nation’s opioid crisis a national emergency. “It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had. You know when I was growing up, they had the LSD and they had certain generations of drugs. There’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years. And I have to say this in all fairness, this is a worldwide problem, not just a United States problem. This is happening worldwide. But this is a national emergency.”
A few hours after this announcement, the White House in a statement said Trump has “instructed his administration to use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis caused by the opioid epidemic.”
The president’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis had recommended in an interim report released July 31 that the president immediately declare a national emergency, citing an overdose death rate of 142 a day.
The chairman of the president’s opioid commission, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, thanked the president “for accepting the first recommendation” of the commission’s report. “It is a national emergency and the president has confirmed that through his words and actions today, and he deserves great credit for doing so,” Christie said.
The commission’s report to the president said a declaration “would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life.”
The report also called on Washington to grant waiver approvals to all 50 states to eliminate barriers and allow treatment at Medicaid-funded residential facilities, a move it said would rapidly increase treatment capacity.
Trump’s statement was welcomed by members of Congress. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Washington “must continue to fully fund important programs on prevention, treatment, and recovery.” Portman also called for Congress to pass laws to “help stop overprescribing, increase the number of treatment beds covered by Medicaid at residential treatment facilities and help stop the flow of synthetic opioids that are shipped into this country through the postal service.”
Rep. Marcy Kaptur D-Ohio, called the president’s remarks “a good step,” adding, “I will remind the President’s team as they move forward, that Medicaid provides the bulk of addiction treatment and is a key partner in providing much-needed care to those in need.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said such a declaration is usually reserved for “time-limited” problems such as the Zika outbreak and that the administration believed they already had the resources and focus needed to tackle the problem. But he did add that “all things are on the table for the president.”
So far, six states have declared statewide emergencies for the opioid epidemic and used the declaration to help increase access to the opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone.