Trump talks tough on opioids, but critics question fund plan
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump vowed Monday to end the “scourge of drug addiction in America,” even as his administration continues to push significant cuts to health care assistance used to combat addiction.
“Failure is not an option,” Trump said in a speech at Manchester Community College in New Hampshire, the state with the first presidential primary and one he has long used to highlight the drug problem devastating communities nationwide. “Addiction is not our future.”
Although Trump once again spoke extensively about expanding the federal death penalty for drug dealers, his administration released a three-page list of proposals before his speech that ruled out any change to existing federal law, suggesting instead that the Justice Department would take a more aggressive stance toward those offenders already eligible to be put to death based on other capital offenses, such as drug-related murders.
Trump’s proposal also included an initiative to cut prescriptions for opioids by one-third over the next three years.
The proposal lacks details on federal spending, however.
That, and the administration’s separate proposals for major cuts to Medicaid, the chief source of funds for people seeking treatment for drug addiction, are causing advocates to question the president’s commitment.
“I’m not sure we can really call this a plan,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, codirector of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. President Trump listens as Jeanne and Jim Moser talk about their son, Adam, who died of an overdose in 2015.
“It’s more like a platform. It’s a list of ideas about addressing the opioid crisis, some of which are helpful, some which sound like a step backward,” he continued. “But what we still don’t have from the administration is a plan of action.”
Kolodny said the administration needs to make a long-term commitment to therapy, on the order of $6 billion a year for the next decade, so that people suffering from addiction can have immediate treatment options that will dissuade them from an easy $20 fix.
Administration officials have shifted questions about funding to Congress, which has yet to coalesce on how to address the epidemic, much less how to pay for a plan.
Congress has appropriated some additional money in recent years, including $6 billion over two years in the most recent spending bill. Yet public health advocates and others, including some Republican state officials, say the aid has been woefully inadequate.
Kellyanne Conway, a Trump adviser who has been working on the issue, told reporters aboard Air Force One that Trump wants $13 billion.
Trump’s pledge won qualified support from at least some Democrats.
“I support many of the policies that the President put forward in a draft plan prior to his speech, much of which was recommended by the President’s opioid commission last year. What’s been missing is follow through,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said in a statement. “We need the President to commit to providing the resources necessary to win this fight.”
With characteristic hyperbole, the president told firefighters at a Manchester, N.H., station that handles opioid-related emergencies, “We’re getting a big response in Congress. A lot of money is coming in.”
When congressional Republicans proposed a multiyear, $45 billion increase in opioid spending in their 2017 bill to roll back the Affordable Care Act, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, dismissed the money as akin to “spitting in the ocean,” especially because the bill also would have cut Medicaid significantly. Kasich has been among the most aggressive governors in tackling the opioid crisis and opposing Medicaid cuts.
Trump has spoken extensively about the toll of drug use, as a candidate and as president. At least 64,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control.