President Trump told reporters Thursday that he believes the opioid crisis is a national emergency, and said his administration is drawing up paperwork to make an official declaration.
“The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency,” he said. “It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis … We’re going to draw it up and we’re going to make it a national emergency. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.”
“You know, when I was growing up they had the LSD and they had certain generations of drugs,” he said. “There’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years. And I have to say this in all fairness, this is a worldwide problem, not just a United States problem. This is happening worldwide. But this is a national emergency and we are drawing documents now to so attest.”
Under the National Emergencies Act, the president must specify what the emergency provisions are and must notify Congress of his intentions.
Trump’s comments, made from his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., come two days after Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told reporters that he would not be making such a declaration at this time. Still, he left the door open to the possibility, saying that several options would be considered.
“We believe at this point that the resources that we need or focus that we need to bring to bear to the opioid crisis can be addressed without the declaration of emergency,” Price said.
The recommendation to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency comes from the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, which Trump established and which is led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The move would provide additional access to funding for the effort by giving areas of the country access to the federal Disaster Relief Fund and waive certain Medicaid rules, such as allowing more treatment centers to receive reimbursement.
Governors in Florida, Arizona, and Maryland have declared states of emergency, granting those governments access to millions of dollars. In the past, federal emergencies have been declared for natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy and for the spread of the Zika virus.
The opioid epidemic, which involves deaths from prescription painkillers and its street alternatives, such as heroin, have continued to rise. In 2015, those overdoses resulted in more than 33,000 deaths.
