News

Washington, DC - "We will work to strengthen vulnerable families and communities, and we will help to build and grow a stronger, healthier, and drug-free society." ~ President Donald J. Trump

ADDRESSING THE DRIVING FORCES OF THE OPIOID CRISIS: President Donald J. Trump’s Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse is confronting the driving forces behind the opioid crisis.

• This Administration secured $6 billion in new funding over two years to fight opioid abuse.
• The President’s Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse will:
  • Reduce drug demand through education, awareness, and prevention efforts.
  • Cut off the flow of illicit drugs across our borders and within communities.
  • Save lives by expanding opportunities for evidence-based treatments for opioid addiction.
• On September 19, 2018, the Administration awarded more than $1 billion in funding to State and local entities to address the opioid crisis.
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded $930 million in grants to support prevention, treatment, and recovery activities.
  • Health Resources and Services Administration awarded more than $396 million to 1,232 community health centers, over 120 rural community organizations, and academic institutions.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded States, territories, tribes, and partners more than $194 million to bolster prevention and data collection efforts battling this crisis.

REDUCING DEMAND AND OVER-PRESCRIPTION: President Trump’s Opioid Initiative is educating Americans about the dangers of opioid misuse and curbing over-prescription.

• The Trump Administration is partnering with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Truth Initiative, and Ad Council to prevent the misuse of opioids among young adults.
• The Administration supports research efforts for innovative therapies to prevent addiction, to offer non-addictive pain management alternatives, and to improve overdose prevention tools.
  • This Administration has nearly doubled funding for opioid and pain research from $600 million to $1.1 billion and is supporting research for a vaccine to prevent opioid addiction.
• In order to reduce the over-prescription of opioids, the President has implemented a Safer Prescribing Plan that:
  • Seeks to cut nationwide opioid prescription fills by one-third within three years.
  • Calls for 95 percent of opioid prescriptions reimbursed by Federal healthcare to be issued using best practices within five years.
  • Ensures all Federally-employed healthcare providers adopt best practices for opioid prescribing within five years.
  • Helps States transition to a nationally interoperable network of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs.
• Strengthening community-driven responses, the Administration has issued $90.9 million in Drug-Free Communities Support Program grants to 731 local drug prevention coalitions.
• Efforts to reduce demand and over-prescription are already seeing results.
  • High-dose opioid prescriptions fell by 16 percent since President Trump took office.
  • In 2017, the number of first-time heroin users ages 12 and older fell by more than 50 percent.

CUTTING OFF THE SUPPLY OF ILLICIT DRUGS: President Trump’s Opioid Initiative is cracking down on international and domestic illicit drug supply chains devastating American communities.

• President Trump is working to keep dangerous drugs out of the United States by:
  • Securing land borders, ports of entry, and waterways against illegal smuggling.
  • Requiring more advance data to flag high-risk international mail shipments.
  • Using advanced drug-detecting canines to inspect high-risk shipments.
  • Testing and identifying suspicious substances in high-risk international packages.
  • Engaging with China and Mexico to reduce supplies of heroin and other illicit opioids.
• The Department of Justice (DOJ) Prescription Interdiction and Litigation Task Force is helping to fight the prescription opioid crisis by:
  • Expanding the DOJ Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit’s efforts to prosecute corrupt or criminally negligent doctors, pharmacies, and distributors.
  • Aggressively deploying all available criminal and civil actions to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for any unlawful practices.
• The Administration will scale up efforts by DOJ’s Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team to stop illicit opioid sales online.
• President Trump’s Administration is strengthening criminal penalties for dealing and trafficking opioids in the United States.
  • DOJ will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers, where appropriate under the law.
  • The President supports legislation to reduce the amounts needed to invoke mandatory minimums for drug traffickers knowingly distributing opioids lethal in trace amounts.
• President Trump’s efforts to cut off the supply of illicit drugs are already seeing results.
  • DOJ shut down the country’s biggest Darknet distributor of drugs.
  • DOJ indicted two Chinese nationals accused of manufacturing and shipping deadly fentanyl and 250 other drugs to at least 25 countries and 37 States.
  • DOJ launched Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge to target fentanyl and heroin dealers in the districts with the most severe overdose deaths.
  • In fiscal year (FY) 2017, DOJ increased the average Federal sentence for drug trafficking to the strongest sentences since 2013.
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized more than 2,300 pounds of fentanyl in FY 2017.
  • Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saw a 66 percent increase in the advance electronic data they received on international mail packages in FY 2018 compared to FY 2017.

HELPING THOSE STRUGGLING WITH ADDICTION: President Trump’s Opioid Initiative is helping those struggling with addiction through evidence-based treatment and recovery support services.

• The Administration is working to ensure first responders are supplied with naloxone, a lifesaving medication used to reverse overdoses.
• Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration awarded more than $30 million to States to help people affected by opioid addiction rejoin the workforce.
• The Trump Administration is empowering local leaders with relevant opioid data to coordinate and optimize their efforts to quickly respond to spikes in overdoses.
• The Administration is working to expand access to evidence-based addiction treatment in every State and to veterans, particularly Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction.
• President Trump supports changing the law prohibiting Medicaid from reimbursing residential treatment at certain facilities with more than 16 beds.
  • In the meantime, the Administration has been approving State Medicaid demonstration projects that address these barriers to inpatient treatment.
• The Administration supports efforts to identify and treat offenders in the criminal justice system who are struggling with addiction.
  • This includes screening every Federal inmate for opioid addiction at intake.
  • Those who screen positive and are approved for placement in residential reentry may volunteer for naltrexone treatment and be connected with recovery services.
  • The Administration supports drug courts to provide appropriate offenders with treatment as an alternative to incarceration, or as a condition of supervised release.
• Efforts to provide help to those struggling with addiction are already seeing results.
  • Last year, America had an increase in the number of patients age 12 and older with illicit drug-use disorders being treated at specialty facilities and private provider offices.
  • There has been a more than 20 percent increase in young adults aged 18 to 25 receiving outpatient treatment.

HISTORIC CONGRESSIONAL ACTION TO COMBAT THE OPIOID CRISIS: President Trump worked hand in hand with Congress to advance the SUPPORT Act, the single largest legislative package addressing a single drug crisis in history. Among the provisions in this historic legislation are:

• IMD CARE Act: Provides States with a Medicaid State plan option to provide residential treatment in facilities (Institutions for Mental Diseases) more than 16 beds, in certain circumstances.
• STOP Act: Requires the United States Postal Service to share advanced electronic data with CBP on 100 percent of packages entering the country.
  • This will help identify suspicious shipments and stop deadly fentanyl from entering from China and Mexico.
• CRIB Act: Supports the most vulnerable victims of the opioid crisis by allowing State Medicaid programs to cover healthcare services to infants suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome in pediatric recovery centers.
  • Currently, pediatric recovery centers cannot bill Medicaid for services to babies in withdrawal, thereby limiting how many families they are able to serve.
• CARA 2.0 Act: Increases the funding authorization levels for certain programs enacted in 2016 under the CARA Act.
• Youth Prevention and Recovery: Leverages existing job training resources to create a pilot program to address workforce shortages exacerbated by the opioid crisis.
  • This will help employers fill job openings and get those in recovery back on their feet.
• ONDCP Reauthorization: Reauthorizes ONDCP and allows its media campaigns to focus on anti-drug messages for all age groups, not just youth as the law currently states.
  • This also reauthorizes the Drug-Free Communities Support Program and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program.
• Improving Recovery and Reunifying Families Act: Authorizes $15 million for a “recovery coach” program for parents with children in foster care due to parental substance use.
  • The goal of the program is to reduce the length of time children spend in foster care due to a parent who is struggling with a substance use disorder.
• CAREER Act: Improves resources and wrap-around support services for those recovering from a substance use disorder who are transitioning from treatment programs to the workforce.
  • This includes $25 million authorized for workforce participation grants.