Just say dough
The call to battle was loud and clear. The weapons and ammunition, deeply underwhelming. In finally sketching his response to the opioid crisis, President Trump decried the epic size of a scourge that last year alone killed nearly 50,000 Americans, three-quarters of all drug overdoses. That’s real “American carnage.”
And grandly promised “to do everything in our power to address this national shame and this human tragedy.”
Trump’s actual action plan falls far short of that rhetorical standard, and of the far more comprehensive approach encouraged by the preliminary report of his own opioid commission, headed by Chris Christie and released in July.
On the positive side, Trump will lift a ban on allowing treatment facilities with more than 16 beds to qualify for Medicaid reimbursements.
He says the government will force one “truly evil” painkiller off the market. And announced a potentially promising public-private partnership to develop non-addictive painkillers.
Finally, Trump promised that in his trip to China next month, he will implore President Xi Jinping to upend fentanyl production and crack down on trafficking into the United States.
All good. And all too weak to make a deep dent in a gargantuan problem. Ninety-two million Americans took a prescription opioid in 2015; 11.5 million misused prescription opioids.
Most critically, ignoring the central recommendation of his own commission, Trump refused to declare a national emergency, which means no new funding to provide deliver desperately needed treatment. Zero.
Worse, he wants huge cuts to the National Institute of Health, which is supposed to be running point against the opioid crisis — and the GOP budget calls for a trillion-dollar cut to vital Medicaid.
Too often, Trump spoke of powerful narcotics to which people typically get hooked starting with a doctor’s prescription as though they’re just like recreational drugs, with users who can be dissuaded using what he called a “massive” Reaganstyle “Just Say No” ad campaign.
If that continues to be the President’s diagnosis, he’ll never arrive at the right prescription.