President Trump says opioid abuse is a national public health emergency. Roughly 64,000 Americans died from opioids and other drugs just last year. Lives have been ruined and families are in need of help. The president called opioid addiction the worst drug crisis in American history, and called America to action. But he says steps can be taken by the government to help end the crisis.
President Trump says opioid abuse is a national public health emergency.
Roughly 64,000 Americans died from opioids and other drugs just last year. Lives have been ruined and families are in need of help.
The president called opioid addiction the worst drug crisis in American history, and called America to action.
But he says steps can be taken by the government to help end the crisis.
«It’s time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it,» he said.
But Trump’s critics, like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, ask: if there’s an emergency in America, why he didn’t commit new federal money to fight it?
«What I would say to the president on that is, show me the money. The president’s statement are words without the money,» she insisted.
But the president believes wise steps can be taken by the executive branch without costing taxpayers more money.
Trump took action to let patients in rural America get prescriptions to treat addictions by phone or the internet.
And he’s cutting bureaucratic red tape, which will let more current federal funds go to treatment centers throughout the country.
The president got personal as he reminisced about his own brother who died from an addiction more than 35-years ago.
«He had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol and he would tell me don’t drink, don’t drink!» the president emphasized.
President Trump says he doesn’t drink alcohol because of his brother’s experience.
As the president made his announcement, authorities arrested the billionaire CEO of pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics. He’s expected to plead not guilty to charges that company officials bribed doctors to over-prescribe the powerful opioid Subsys.
The opioid crisis has taken a heavy toll throughout the country.
CBN News has reported regularly on the crisis. Health reporter Lori Johnson talked with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine whose state has limited the amount of pain killers doctors can prescribe to patients at one time, and the state has brought lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.
«We had a number of pharmaceutical companies that develop pain meds and they were pushing those out and they were telling the doctors these are not very addictive. Turns out they are very addictive,» DeWine told Johnson.
Alane Vance knows all too well just how addictive opioids can be. She started on painkillers and then transitioned to heroin because it was stronger and cheaper.
«I remember the first time I ever done heroin. I remember thinking, ‘This might kill me. I may die.’ And then the longer I was in active addiction, I remember mixing it up in the spoon and saying, ‘I hope this kills me. I’m ready to die,'» she said.
But like others who have turned to faith-based treatment, Alane overcame her bondage after joining a Christian outreach center and turning to God.
«I started getting to know Jesus and I realized that the same power that rose him from the grave is what fights addiction. Not me. I can’t beat it. But once I realized that was the power fighting for me, I knew I was never, ever going back.»
LINKS:
The Opioid Crisis: How We Got Here and the Way Out
Ohio’s Deadly Opioid Epidemic: The 5 Drugmakers Being Blamed for the Crisis
‘A National Emergency’: President Trump Declares War on Opioid Epidemic
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