Trump’s promises on opioids not backed by funds

Two weeks after President Donald Trump declared the US opioid epidemic a national public health emergency,1 and nearly a week after his special commission on combating drug addiction released 56 recommendations on ways to tackle the crisis, there are few signs that money will be forthcoming to turn words into action.

Most experts and advocates have praised the commission’s recommendations, which included better pain management training for doctors, use of less punitive drug courts that swap treatment for incarceration, an advertising campaign that draws on research to find a more effective message than “just say no,” and a focus on stopping imports of deadly fentanyl.2

But neither Trump nor the commission’s head, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, put a figure on the funding that would be needed to enact these measures and to reduce the toll of deaths from overdose, which is …