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NY Times: Trump Declares Opioid Crisis a ‘Health Emergency’ but Requests No Funds

WaffleTaco

WaffleTaco

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Oct 25, 2017
2,908
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/politics/trump-opioid-crisis.html?smid=pl-share
President Trump on Thursday directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, taking long-anticipated action to address a rapidly escalating epidemic of drug use.
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His directive does not on its own release any additional funds to deal with a drug crisis that claimed more than 59,000 lives in 2016, and the president did not request any, although his aides said he would soon do so. And he made little mention of the need for the rapid and costly expansion of medical treatment that public health specialists, including some in his own administration, argue is crucial to addressing the epidemic.
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The designation of a public health crisis, formally made by Eric D. Hargan, the acting health secretary, would allow for some grant money to be used to combat opioid abuse, permit the hiring of specialists to tackle the crisis, and expand the use of telemedicine services to treat people in rural areas ravaged by opioid use, where doctors are often in short supply.

Mr. Trump said his plan would include a requirement that federally employed prescribers be trained in safe practices for opioid prescriptions, and a new federal initiative to develop nonaddictive painkillers, as well as intensified efforts to block shipments of fentanyl, a cheap and extremely potent synthetic opioid manufactured in China, into the United States.
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Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, said that no emergency declaration would do much to alleviate the impact of opioids without a substantial commitment of federal money and a clear strategy for overhauling the way the country treats addiction.

"What we need is for the president to seek an appropriation from Congress, I believe in the billions, so that we can rapidly expand access for effective outpatient opioid addiction treatments," Dr. Kolodny said in an interview. "Until those treatments are easier to access than heroin or fentanyl, overdose deaths will remain at record-high levels."
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As president, he appointed an opioid commission in March, installing Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a rival for the Republican nomination who had championed the issue during the 2016 race, as chairman.

In July, the commission recommended that the president declare a national emergency — either under the Stafford Act, which would have allowed the allocation of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, or the Public Health Service Act, the option Mr. Trump chose.
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Administration officials argued that a national emergency declaration was not necessary or helpful in the case of the opioid crisis, and that the powers associated with a public health emergency were better suited to address the issue. They said the White House would soon send Congress a request for money to combat opioids, with the goal of including it in a year-end spending package.
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Among the questions left unanswered by the president's announcement is whether the Department of Health and Human Services will use its authority under the public health declaration to negotiate lower prices for naloxone, a drug that quickly counteracts the effects of opioid overdoses. Lawmakers and public health and anti-addiction organizations have argued that such a measure is crucial to expand access to the drug.
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This is something that I wish had been taking more seriously, as it has destroyed countless lives. This was the one thing that I thought Trump was actually doing well, but now I am having second thoughts.
 
Cake Boss

Cake Boss

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,068
Equivalent to

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A Fish Aficionado

A Fish Aficionado

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,190
Why I am not surprised to see Orrin Hatch there. Fucking criminal.

He also stans for the unregulated suppliment industry.
 

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
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Oct 26, 2017
6,525
"It's going to wind up being the most important thing," he said. "Really tough, really big, really great advertising."

"This was an idea that I had," he declared, "where if we can teach young people not to take drugs, just not to take them."

340px-Photograph_of_Mrs._Reagan_speaking_at_a_%22Just_Say_No%22_Rally_in_Los_Angeles_-_NARA_-_198584.jpg
 
brandnewcardock

brandnewcardock

Member
Oct 25, 2017
658
Listening to his speech in today's Times podcast was scary. He interjects to ask, "why can't people just not take it", and explains how an advertising campaign to teach people "not to start" it will make it really easy for them to "not take them". Personal restraint is the only thing fueling this epidemic in his eyes.

Didn't this dude's brother die of alcoholism? How can you be so ignorant on a topic so personal to your own life? I don't understand.
 

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
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Oct 26, 2017
6,525
brandnewcardock said:
Listening to his speech in today's Times podcast was scary. He interjects to ask, "why can't people just not take it", and explains how an advertising campaign to teach people "not to start" it will make it really easy for them to "not take them". Personal restraint is the only thing fueling this epidemic in his eyes.

Didn't this dude's brother die of alcoholism? How can you be so ignorant on a topic so person to your own life? I don't understand.
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You should read up on how Donald treated his deceased brother's family.
 
Enduin

Enduin

You look 40
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Oct 25, 2017
11,470
New York
Decent little segment on the Daily Show about this and the difference between labeling it a Health Emergency and National Emergency like he originally promised.

 
Mammoth Jones

Mammoth Jones

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Oct 25, 2017
12,298
New York
So then we need to support alternatives. When disease destroyed my hip sockets and I had to get one of them replaced at 35 there was no medicinal marijuana option. But they had no problem tossing me percocets like they were pez dispensers. Which made me sick to my stomach.

Going through that I just wish people would remember there are a LOT of people in severe physical pain that use these medications responsibly. They work with their doctors to implement a regimen that allows them to function and the alternative would be much much worse.

Also, I'm fairly ignorant on how this works in terms of state by state level. Are some states better at handling this than others? If so, what's the difference?
 
Red

Red

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,637
Mammoth Jones said:
So then we need to support alternatives. When disease destroyed my hip sockets and I had to get one of them replaced at 35 there was no medicinal marijuana option. But they had no problem tossing me percocets like they were pez dispensers. Which made me sick to my stomach.

Going through that I just wish people would remember there are a LOT of people in severe physical pain that use these medications responsibly. They work with their doctors to implement a regimen that allows them to function and the alternative would be much much worse.

Also, I'm fairly ignorant on how this works in terms of state by state level. Are some states better at handling this than others? If so, what's the difference?
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Finding nonaddictive pain treatments is one of the directives here, for whatever that's worth.
 

Deleted member 3542

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Oct 25, 2017
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This administration has made it clear they don't care, Sessions especially just taking a criminal-approach ala Reagan, and not addressing the larger issue of uninhibited pharmaceutical companies having reign over policy. Big Pharma did a lot (32 million I think?) to torpedo any headway in 2009 on the ACA addressing it and now we're paying for it ten-fold - biggest drug dealers in the country by a mile. I know the ACA was already negotiated down, but that was a fight I wish Obama had fought more on, but a good chunk of the Democrats were on board as well so really BigPharm has our politicians on both sides in their pocket.

Hollow speech from a hollow man who in no ways understands the severity of the issue and how the medical industry even works.

Edit: I meant 32 billion, not 32 million. I'll have to double check that, but they paid out the ass to ensure stable profits.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
940
Fuck him. This is a mass casualty event and nobody in the federal government is talking about it or seem to be taking it seriously.
 
Captjohnboyd

Captjohnboyd

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,569
Is it happening?! It's happening!

Seriously though the evidence just keeps piling up. I'm waiting with baited breath on manafort now
 
jay

jay

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,274
Good, issuing funds would only make the cause lazy and entitled. An initiative with no funds will be forced to be scrappy and fight it's way to success, which is the American way.
 
Pet

Pet

More helpful than the IRS
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,070
SoCal
I heard on NPR that declaring a health emergency usually means states/gov can dip into a 3 million (30 million?) fund set aside for them, but this year the Zika virus and other disasters already depleted the money.

Congress is the only one with the power to refund that pot.


(At least, this is from a very brief segment on it. I didn't check the facts, but I generally trust NPR.)
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,910
What a surprise that the party of big business isn't doing anything that would hurt the big pharmaceutical corporations that put us in this mess

Wow at the NYT article, that meeting just keeps on giving
 
xxracerxx

xxracerxx

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Oct 25, 2017
31,222
He is just full of hot air. He is just checking off a mark and not actually doing anything about it.
 
Strike

Strike

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Oct 25, 2017
27,337
Maybe if we decriminalized drugs and treated it as an illness like Portugal than maybe we'd seem some actual progress on the matter, but there's too much money to be made here by many parties. Let's be real, anyone who actually thought Trump or the GOP had any real solutions were fooling themselves.
 
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Darryl M R

Darryl M R

The Spectacular PlayStation-Man
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Oct 25, 2017
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White America been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!
 

Deleted member 15136

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
521
What Trump did to screw over my country (Puerto Rico) was disgusting. This animal is the worst thing that could have happened to all of us.

I miss Obama.
 
Oligarchenemy

Oligarchenemy

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Oct 25, 2017
2,332
Also, NIMBYs continue to obstruct pushes for safe injection sites. This is gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better.
 
Saganator

Saganator

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Oct 26, 2017
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Strike said:
Maybe if we decriminalized drugs and treated it as an illness like Portugal than maybe we'd seem some actual progress on the matter, but there's too much money to be made here by many parties. Let be real, anyone who actually thought Trump or the GOP had any real solutions were fooling themselves.
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The Drug War is just a huge bullshit show to justify the existence of hundreds of government agencies, federal and all the way down to local levels. Barring some kind of major cultural and political shift, there is no stopping the train.

In a dream world, our government would divert funding to treatment instead of punishment. They would have programs to retrain law enforcement government employees into the health care government employees. Open the doors to prisons and jails(relocate those that deserve to be in prison), turn them into crisis centers and temporary housing for the homeless. Start building more mental health hospitals instead of prisons. Give people government subsidized rehab options, instead of letting private companies charge people $20k-100k+ a pop.
 
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