Contents
- Is President Trump’s ‘Public Health Emergency’ Enough to Defeat Opioid Epidemic?
- Trump to unveil opioid plan seeking death penalty for drug dealers: White House
- SPH’s Saitz faults death to dealers, immigration focus, other ideas
- Trump’s opioid plan includes pushing death penalty for drug dealers
- At White House opioid summit, Trump suggests lawsuit against drug companies
The prisoners would be treated exclusively with Vivitrol for a month before moving into the next phase of recovery. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic,” the president said. At the White House on Thursday, President Trump announced a “public health emergency” over the nation’s opioid epidemic. The roll out of the plan will be the latest White House action aimed at addressing a U.S. drug abuse crisis that is causing thousands of overdose deaths a year.
Long-term outpatient use of methadone or buprenorphine has been shown to substantially cut the death rate—unlike any other type of treatment. However, his initiative states that for prisoners, he’s going to push access to naltrexone, a drug that unfortunately could make relapse fatal due to the way it reduces tolerance. Mandatory minimums have not been effective at the state or federal level, which is why there’s now a bipartisan drive to roll them back. It’s not going to be big-pharma CEOs or even genuine kingpins being sent to the execution chamber; such people are far too well-protected by lawyers and money and typically too far away from actual product and sales decisions to be proven guilty in any event. Trump said that his administration is addressing the issue of overprescribing pain medication—yet he offered very few specifics for how they plan to actually achieve this. Emergent BioSolutions, a biopharmaceutical company, will offer free Narcan nasal spray, which can help reverse an opioid overdose, to over 16,500 public libraries and 2,700 YMCAs.
Is President Trump’s ‘Public Health Emergency’ Enough to Defeat Opioid Epidemic?
The U.S. and other nations have moved away from instituting capital punishment. Globally, 141 countries have abolished the practice and in 2016, 23 countries killed over 1,000 people with the most deaths occurring in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, according to Amnesty International. Franklin said the vaccine will work only in the short term and require repeated doses. But if implemented along with other opioid treatments, the vaccine could play a promising role in curbing the epidemic.
Furthermore, generic medications for treating addiction already exist, and they are not the main barriers to care. That said, even low prices can be a barrier when addiction treatment program reimbursement for care doesn’t cover them. A lot of addiction experts say prevention and treatment are just as important if not more so. But there are questions about where the money is going to come from to pay for some of these things. And there are also questions about how the Trump – the Trump administration will actually implement all of this.
Trump to unveil opioid plan seeking death penalty for drug dealers: White House
The White House has yet to reveal how much support it will give to developing a vaccine, but Trump has called for $13 billion in additional funding over the next two years for the Department of Health and Human Services. The program created during the Obama administration subsidizes state Medicaid programs that provide insurance coverage for roughly 40% of Americans receiving opioid addiction treatment. Researchers also say fentanyl has continued to spread fast, despite interdiction efforts, contributing to more overdose deaths in the western United States where the synthetic opioid had been scarce. Before coronavirus hit, opioids were widely viewed as the nation’s top public health crisis. In 2017 — Trump’s first year in office — more than 42,000 Americans died from overdoses linked to heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do,” Trump said.
The federal plan also calls for the use of only one medication, naltrexone, rather than allowing all three approved medications for addiction treatment, which have been so promising in reducing overdose deaths for those leaving Rhode Island’s correctional facility. On Thursday, the president said the public health emergency will address the “national shame” and “human tragedy” of the opioid crisis. Opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin and synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, killed more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016, more than any year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump has declared that fighting the epidemic is a priority for the administration but critics say the effort has fallen short. The senior White House official said the administration wants to work with Congress to change existing laws that tie punishment to the amounts of drugs in possession. As the opioid Fentanyl has gained popularity on the street, the official says, laws have not kept up.
The widespread reach of the crisis, which has struck red and blue states in equal measure and devastated urban and rural communities alike, united hundreds of lawmakers to hold hearings and propose legislation that would shape the SUPPORT bill. Passing the legislation proved to be good ammunition for lawmakers campaigning for re-election in November, as candidates battled over who could provide more solutions to the crisis. “The administration was supportive, gave us very timely technical assistance and helped shape bills that were being negotiated while also giving us plenty of space to negotiate with Democrats,” another Republican Congressional aide said. Congress and the White House sat down for the first time to discuss combating the epidemic last October ahead of a number of congressional hearings by the House and the Senate on the subject. In terms of helping those struggling with addiction, there has been a 20 percent increase in young adults receiving outpatient treatment.
For President Trump, ending the opioid epidemic is more than just a policy issue. The president’s plan makes headlines, but falls short of delivering all of the science- and evidence-based approaches that would make a real difference in the lives of those struggling with this epidemic. In addition, the opioid epidemic reached the shelves of Walgreens this week. Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, executive director at the Dunes East Hampton addiction treatment residence in New York, said education is one of the keys. She also thinks efforts to punish people who abuse opioids aren’t effective.
- But if implemented along with other opioid treatments, the vaccine could play a promising role in curbing the epidemic.
- Finally arrives this week, but some advocates are worried that it won’t be backed with the money and commitment to make much difference.
- Last October, Trump declared the crisis a national public health emergency, short of the national state of emergency sought by a presidential commission he put together to study the issue.
- One Republican congressional source familiar with the process told NBC News that the administration made a priority of directing funds to discover a nonaddictive painkiller and combating overprescription by giving patients smaller doses of opioids in “blister packs.”
This support would boost the efforts of scientists who hit a major breakthrough in December. Researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the National Institute on Drug Abuse developed an experimental heroin vaccine for mice and rats. They found that antibodies in the vaccine bound to the heroin before crossing the blood-brain barrier, thus preventing the euphoric effects of the drug. Meanwhile, Democrat Joe Biden has released a plan of his own promising to end the overdose crisis if he’s elected.
More than 33,000 people in the United States die every year from opioid-related causes. At a commission meeting last week, no overt reference was made to the president’s promise, but members stressed the need to act. As the weeks have passed, Christie appeared to grow impatient, telling an audience in New Jersey earlier this month that it wasn’t “good that it hasn’t been done yet.” Trump said back in August he planned to adopt the recommendation, and claimed his team was working on documents to formalize the declaration. But his words spurred immediate push-back from some inside his administration who argued it wasn’t the best move.
SPH’s Saitz faults death to dealers, immigration focus, other ideas
Seizures of several kinds of illicit drugs are up, the number of new 30-day prescriptions is down and overdose deaths attributed to prescription pain medications have started to level. In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Ever since, the Trump Administration applied an all-of-Government approach to the epidemic, taking an extraordinary range of actions that reflect the President’s commitment to stopping the crisis in its tracks. The Dublin-based pharmaceutical company makes injectable naltrexone, better known as Vivitrol, a once-a-month drug that knocks out the impact of opioids by blocking the brain’s opioid’s receptors. In the White House’s opioid plan rolled out last week, one of its moves is to screen all incoming federal prisoners for opioids, and to guide those with issues into treatment.
Basically, cutting an existing prescription doesn’t stop an addiction—nor does it do anything to help pain patients get effective care. The plan, first reported by Politico, is expected to be released in New Hampshire on Monday where President Trump will make stops in Manchester. New Hampshire has some of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country, according to the Center For Disease Control, coming in third after West Virginia and Ohio. The bipartisan approach on Capitol Hill led to a mostly hands-off but supportive process from the White House, which often tends to intervene in contentious legislative battles like health care, taxes and immigration, according to congressional sources. Democrats applauded the law Wednesday as a step in the right direction, though many said the legislation did not go far enough to confront the epidemic.
A controversial study on naloxone, for example, demonstrated the drug could have adverse effects without other measures in place. But each new treatment option gives doctors a better chance of reversing the damage. Although an opioid addiction vaccine is still in the early stages, there are new medications to fight the crisis that are much further along. Naltrexone, which comes in pill and injection form, blocks the effects of opiates in the brain. Doctors are also working on an implantable patch of buprenorphine to help patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 42,000 opioid-related deaths in 2016.
“A drug dealer can have 20,000 lethal doses of Fentanyl and not trigger mandatory minimums sentences,” the official said. President Donald Trump is set to roll out new plans to tackle the nation’s opioid crisis on Monday that are expected to call for tougher penalties, potentially including the death penalty for traffickers, a senior White House official told NBC News. Public health experts have applauded the bill for increasing access to treatment, which they argue is a key step to curbing the epidemic. One of the measures removes an old provision that did not allow those with substance abuse issues to access mental health facilities with more than 16 beds for treatment under Medicaid. The bill also creates a grant program for states to help recovery centers and addiction specialists increase their quality of care.
In the same cycle, the company paid $4.5 million to make sure those in Washington as well as officials in statehouses across the county got the company’s message. Michael Botticelli is the executive director of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. He served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from March 2014 until January 2017.
Trump’s opioid plan includes pushing death penalty for drug dealers
President Trump unveiled his plan to curb the opioid crisis, and the plan includes developing a vaccine against opioid addiction. The plan should include access to healthcare for all, including coverage for substance use disorder treatment. In addition, the president is expected to propose changes in the areas of treatment and recovery for those dependent on opioids, focusing on substance abuse prevention and education efforts. People who become newly addicted tend to be teenagers and young adults who obtain the pills from friends or relatives for free or buy from drug dealers or strangers, per 2013 and 2014 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released this past January.
At White House opioid summit, Trump suggests lawsuit against drug companies
She said declaring a national emergency is fine, but the proclamation alone doesn’t solve the problem. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pennsylvania) was one of the primary sponsors of this legislation. After the “60 Minutes” report, he withdrew from consideration for the role of drug czar, a position for which he was nominated by President Trump. As Healthline reported in August, such a declaration can make it easier for federal agencies to receive additional funding to combat the problem. Gottlieb said his agency will “double our efforts” to help develop new, less addictive pain remedies.
The president remarked that drug dealers “will kill thousands of people during their lifetime” without being punished, and therefore deserve execution. But some experts, like Keith Humphrey, a Stanford professor who helped both House and Senate staff in crafting the legislation, https://sober-house.org/ said Congress did not address deep-rooted issues in the health care system that would truly transform the crisis. He said the opioid law does not come close to the scale of measures passed in less contentious congressional eras aimed at combating HIV/AIDs, for example.
Trump has said the United States will need “toughness” to reverse these trends. But he actually called for the death penalty for “really bad pushers and abusers.” It would be helpful to reduce the supply of potent synthetic opioids that often lead to fatal overdose. Last October, Trump declared the crisis a national public health emergency, short of the national state of emergency sought by a presidential commission he put together to study the issue. The president told the audience at a Pennsylvania campaign rally this month that countries like Singapore have fewer issues with drug addiction because they harshly punish their dealers. He argued that a person in the U.S. can get the death penalty or life in prison for shooting one person, but that a drug dealer who potentially kills thousands can spend little or no time in jail. Trump’s promise to make the overdose antidote, naloxone , more widely available.
Trump has previously called for the death penalty for drug dealers
— President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law, a top administration official said Sunday. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump, who aims to be seen as tough on crime, has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks. — President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law, a top administration official said. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks. The fact that a cheap medication to produce, naloxone, an overdose reversal lifesaver, can cost upwards of $3,000 a dose is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. I am skeptical, however, that the former chief executive of one of the world’s largest drug companies [Alex Azar, Trump’s health and human services secretary] will take action that will lower prescription drug prices .
“We are going to stop the inflow of drugs into New Hampshire and into our country 100%,” Trump promised. “We call it the crisis next door because everyone knows someone,” said Kellyanne Conway, a Trump senior adviser. “This is no longer somebody else’s community, somebody eco sober house review else’s kid, somebody else’s co-worker.” Trump drew criticism last year after leaked transcripts of his telephone conversation with Mexico’s president showed he had described New Hampshire as a “drug-infested den.” The Washington Post published the transcripts.
The cost of Vivitrol can be as high as $1,000 a dose, and critics charge that while it’s more expensive than other treatments such as Suboxone or methadone, it isn’t any more effective in treating addicts, and it may even be less effective. The initiative speaks of “leveraging” federal resources, but apparently offers no new funding beyond that already approved by Congress during the Obama administration. At the very least, I’m heartened that the president is finally indicating public support of the $6 billion proposed by Congress. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the number of people who died of gun-related violence or motor vehicle accidents the same year.