National State of Emergency Urged by Federal Opioid Commission

On July 31, 2017, the Trump administration’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis released their interim report, which urged the administration to “declare a national emergency” regarding the addiction problems in the country (Kim, 2017; ONDCP, 2017).

The Commission was created in March of 2017, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and including Patrick Kennedy, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (Kim, 2017). The report noted that “the most recent data estimates that 142 Americans die every day from a drug overdose” and that “America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11 every three weeks” (ONDCP, 2017).

Among other things, the Commission recommended

Increasing SUD treatment under Medicaid
Increasing access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT)
Equipping law enforcement with naloxone
Improving prescription drug monitoring programs
Implementing fentanyl detectors via the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop the drug from entering the US
Enforcing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) with a “parity compliance tool”

Click here to view the Commission’s report.

References

Kim, V. (2017). Opioid commission urges Trump to declare national state of emergency. Retrieved from https://www.thefix.com/opioid-commission-urges-trump-declare-national-state-emergency

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). (2017). Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis interim report. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/ondcp/commission-interim-report.pdf

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