Trump on the case

After being slow to react to the two-weekold interim report of his own opioid addiction commission, President Trump seemed to awaken Thursday to the gravity of a crisis that destroys countless families and takes more than 80 lives every day. His broad pledge must now be followed by a pragmatic strategy, implemented with haste.

Thursday, Trump said he’s following the top recommendation of the panel led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: declaring a national emergency.

That empowers the Department of Health and Human Services to grant waivers allowing states to expand Medicaid funding to mental-health facilities’ anti-addiction programs.

Utterly nonsensical current law blocks additional funding to facilities with more than 16 patients. Just four states, including New York, have been granted waivers. (And the waiver is no cureall: Staten Island alone has seen 13 fatal overdoses in the last three weeks.)

Extending that flexibility would be especially welcome given its implicit endorsement of increased Medicaid funding; just weeks ago, congressional Republicans, with Trump’s blessing, attempted to slash the program.

Trump must do far more, and challenge his own assumptions along the way. Tuesday, the President talked up southern border enforcement as key to solving the problem.

Except, as the commission details, fentanyl — synthetic heroin — is now the biggest problem and on that front, “We are losing this fight predominately through China.”

Addiction to powerful substances kills. Addiction to bad ideas fails to save lives.