Trump declares opioid public health emergency but no extra money

Opioids are the “worst drug crisis in American history,” claiming 175 lives every day, said President Donald Trump in declaring a public health emergency on Thursday 26 October.1

“No part of our society—not young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural—has been spared this plague” of addiction and death, he said.

Trump announced a broad series of actions that the federal government has and will be taking to rein in the supply of illegal drugs, to shift from a legal to a medical approach to the problems of addiction, and to expand treatment for substance misuse.

But he stopped short of declaring a national state of emergency, as was done recently for states affected by hurricanes and …