Shatterproof Statement on SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health Staffing Cuts
NORWALK, Conn., April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) responsible for conducting the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) were impacted by the recent reduction in force within HHS and its component agencies. There is reason to be concerned that these changes will impede the public's ability to access important data from this survey that has been ongoing since 1971.
NSDUH provides valuable insights annually on the scope of the problem of drug use in the United States, including the types of substances used, treatments engaged, and payors involved in paying for that treatment. This data informs policymakers and market participants on unmet needs and solutions to address addiction. Nearly 49 million Americans ages 12 and older had a substance use disorder (SUD) within the past year, and the NSDUH is an invaluable source of nationally representative data on the use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs and the trends and challenges driving the addiction crisis in the U.S.
HHS Secretary Kennedy and Congress have made addressing addiction a priority, and it is essential that we have a robust, best-practice national survey to inform substance use policy and treatment resources. Ideally, this should include the publication of the forthcoming NSDUH 2024 data without interruption. This will enable Congress and state and local governments to make evidence-informed decisions in the fight against addiction – one of our nation's most pressing public health challenges that take the lives of nearly 250 people a day.
'Without this single, historic measure of U.S substance use and misuse, we lose our ONLY way to monitor and manage problems that seriously affect the entire population,' said Thomas McLellan, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Shatterproof Scientific Advisor. 'America cannot be great if it continues to suffer from substance use disorder - and without NSDUH we will lose our major monitoring and management tool.'
As one of the leading national nonprofits focused on helping people navigate the complexities of SUD, Shatterproof urges the Trump Administration and Congress to make publication of the NSDUH a very timely priority.
About Shatterproof
Shatterproof is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the addiction treatment system in the U.S. Shatterproof is focused on guiding society, especially families, through the complexities of a substance use disorder; informing the public on prevention, treatment and recovery from addiction; and educating the public to reduce addiction stigma to ensure that people who use substances or have a substance use disorder can live healthy and fulfilled lives. Find Shatterproof on Facebook, X and YouTube: @ShatterproofHQ or follow them on Instagram at @weareshatterproof. To learn more, visit www.Shatterproof.org.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CDC firings: Former director, fired vaccine panelist on RFK Jr's changes
(NewsNation) — While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he wanted to restore public trust by firing the entire vaccine advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person he fired says Kennedy did the opposite in the academic community. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members was made up of medical and health professionals who made recommendations on the safety and use of vaccines. One of the 17 panelists fired is Dr. Noel Brewer, who joined NewsNation's 'CUOMO' on Tuesday night. 'My concern is that we've taken 60 years of efforts to build trust among health care providers in the recommendations of the advisory committee through CDC, and that trust just evaporated overnight,' Brewer said. 'It is going to be hard to get that back.' The committee was set to meet in two weeks to discuss COVID-19 and other vaccines. Judge determined OPM broke law with DOGE access to data 'I don't think most Americans even care that much about it. And now that there's all this news and people like me out from our ivory towers, it's generating interest,' Brewer said. 'But I don't think that the impact here is going to be primarily among the general public.' Dr. Robert Redfield was CDC director under the first Trump administration, and he said the public lost trust in the power of vaccines. 'I believe vaccines are the most important gift of science to modern medicine. When I was CDC director, I was very disturbed that over half of the population didn't get the flu vaccine,' he said. 'Then, the COVID pandemic came, and I have to say, although I have a lot of respect for Noel and the other people on the committee, the reality is the guidance that came out of the ACIP for COVID vaccines, I think in general, was ill-advised.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Advocates, legislators still trying to expand expired compensation program for radiation exposure
Jun. 10—One year ago, Congress let a federal program end that compensated people who grew sick from mining uranium for nuclear weapons or from living downwind of nuclear weapons tests. In those 12 months, Tina Cordova's cousin died after years of living with a rare brain cancer. Under a proposed expansion of the program, 61-year-old Danny Cordova likely would have qualified for the $100,000 compensation offered to people with specific cancers who lived in specific areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapons' tests. "Instead, he and his mom lived literally paycheck to paycheck trying to pay for all of the medications he needed," Cordova said. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program was created in 1990, New Mexican downwinders have been left out, as have uranium mine workers from after 1971. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., has led an effort in the Upper Chamber alongside Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to expand the program so it includes later uranium mine workers, and people harmed by aboveground nuclear tests in more states — including New Mexico. In January, they reintroduced a bill to extend and expand RECA. "Letting RECA expire is a disgrace to these families and victims," Luján said. "It's an insult to the victims and their families who still struggle to this very day to get help, get the medicine they need, get the treatments for the conditions caused by the negligence of the federal government. For the victims, this story is long from being over. Generational trauma and poor health conditions continue to plague entire families." Although Hawley and Luján's bill passed the Senate twice in the last session of Congress, and was supported by the entire New Mexico delegation, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., never allowed a vote on the companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M. The expansion would have included an increased pricetag of $50 billion to $60 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — a cost estimate Luján has disagreed with. Since its inception, RECA has paid out approximately $2.6 billion. There is no accurate estimate of how many New Mexicans would be included if RECA is expanded, according to Luján's office. "We know we have the votes to get this passed now," said Leger Fernández, who plans to reintroduce the bill in the House. "They keep raising issues with regards to the cost... These are people's lives, and so we need to keep bringing it back to that issue. And in many ways, I think that we are doing this in a bicameral manner, and that the pressure that is being brought from the Senate will help us in the House." 'No apology' Cordova's cousin was diagnosed in his 20s, and had five brain surgeries to address his cancer. "He was left with horrendous and devastating consequences of that (first) surgery," Cordova said. "He lost the eyesight in one eye, he lost the part of his brain that controlled all of his hormonal functions, and he lost the part of his brain that also controlled his ability to adapt his body temperature." Five generations of Cordova's family tree include many cases of cancer. She herself survived thyroid cancer, and as a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, she's long advocated for expanding RECA. Cordova's kitchen counter is covered in the stories of family trees that mirror her own. For 18 years, she's been collecting health surveys from people who grew up in areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapon tests, documenting a history of cancer and death for families from Tularosa, Alamogordo and beyond. Loretta Anderson, a patient advocate and co-founder of the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post-71, works with over 1,000 former uranium miners and their families throughout the Laguna and Acoma pueblos. She knows 10 post-1971 uranium miners, those who would be compensated under a RECA expansion, who have died in the past 12 months. "They died with no compensation, no apology from the government," Anderson said. Despite the difficulty in getting RECA extended and expanded, Cordova has faith it will eventually pass through Congress. "This is not a partisan issue," Cordova said. "Exposure to radiation has affected the young, the old, the male, the female, the Black, the white, the Republican and Democrat alike."
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Harrisburg restaurants react to Food Allergy Safety Legislation
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Right now there is no legislation in Pennsylvania that requires menus to have food allergy disclaimers. A bill to change that already passed the House. Restaurants abc27 spoke with agree the changes it would make are needed. House Bill 77 would also require restaurants to display a poster for their employees and have food allergy safety training. Millworks menu items that contain nuts or gluten are labeled. Front of House Manager Freddy Arundel says more and more customers are coming in with food allergies, which already prompted the restaurant to take precautions. 'The staff is trained to alert the kitchen about the allergies,' Arundel says. 'It's also flagged in our system on every ticket, so everyone who sees what's going on anywhere in the process and it's prepared separately and taken to the guest separately as well. Sauce Boss owner Sheri Tolomeo says gluten would be the main concern at her restaurant and she wouldn't mind updating her menus to disclose that. 'We could educate the people on it and then people can feel more comfortable when they come in ordering things because they know exactly what they're getting,' Tolomeo says. 'We can mix and match and make something that accommodates someone with an allergy.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now More than 33 million Americans have food allergies. That includes over one million in Pennsylvania. Bill sponsors say restaurants and other food retail facilities are the source of nearly half of all food allergy deaths. In a press conference on Tuesday, Kathy Briden spoke about her son Matthew who had a peanut allergy and died at age 28 after an accidental exposure. 'With a practical law in place, individuals and families living with food allergy may be more willing to extend trust when dining out, allowing Pennsylvania restaurants reap the economic benefits,' says Sung Poblete, chief executive officer of FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education). 'Ultimately, it is on the patron to inform the staff, but when the staff doesn't know what's in the food and just how deadly some of these reactions can be, we think that's the whole premise of House Bill 77,' says Rep. Natalie Mihalek (R-Allegheny and Washington Counties). House Bill 77 passed with bipartisan support in the House. Sen. Judith Schwank said in the Tuesday press conference that she's working on getting the Agriculture and Rural Affairs committee she co-chairs to get it on their agenda. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
