Latest news with #OfficeofNationalDrugControlPolicy
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Despite pledge to expand naloxone access, Trump administration proposal would cut overdose prevention programs
The Trump administration has named overdose prevention among its top drug policy priorities, but a preliminary budget proposal that was recently leaked suggests that it would cut about two dozen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. In a document published last month by the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, the first strategy listed under the first objective reads: 'To combat the drug crisis and the opioid epidemic, largely driven by fentanyl, the Administration will expand access to overdose prevention education and life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone.' However, among the potential cuts listed in the budget proposal in April was a program that directly expands access to naloxone: a $56 million annual grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, that helps distribute kits and trains first responders and others on how to use them. In fiscal year 2023, the First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or FR-CARA, program distributed more than 101,000 opioid overdose reversal medication kits and trained nearly 77,000 people on how to administer them, according to a budget request document from SAMHSA. Plans for fiscal year 2024 raised that goal to distributing 130,000 kits and training tens of thousands more. Spokespeople from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the US Department of Health and Human Services said that no final decisions have been made about the upcoming fiscal budget, including potential cuts to the naloxone program. A reorganization at HHS will consolidate SAMHSA under the new Administration for a Healthy America, an effort that the agency says is meant to 'more efficiently coordinate chronic care and disease prevention programs and harmonize health resources to low-income Americans.' But advocates worry that the loss of a key part of the strategy to address the overdose epidemic in the US could set progress back. 'Naloxone - the antidote to an overdose - saves lives every day and naloxone distribution programs have been part of the federal government's overdose response for over a decade,' Regina LaBelle, director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at Georgetown University, said in an email to CNN. 'The Administration recently renewed the opioid public health emergency but at the same time it's calling for the elimination of programs that are working to bring down overdose death rates. These actions make the emergency declaration ring hollow and worse still, if the programs are eliminated, will have serious negative impacts on communities nationwide.' The Cherokee Nation has received about $1 million through the FR-CARA grant, which it has put toward the tribe's harm reduction program. It estimates that 25,000 kits with Narcan – one of the brand names of naloxone – have been dispersed to law enforcement, schools and communities in northeastern Oklahoma. 'With this grant we also trained law enforcement officers, emergency management services and firefighters in our Cherokee Nation Reservation training to dispense Narcan, and armed them with Narcan to save lives when they roll up to the scene of an overdose. We know it has saved hundreds of lives not only Cherokee citizens, but Oklahomans,' Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in an email to CNN. 'All of these agencies could not afford Narcan if we did not provide it, so we are hopeful the grant continues because we know it's powerful and effective.' Annual overdose deaths have dropped about 23% since reaching a peak in mid-2023, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts have said that the decrease is probably the result of a wide range of persistent efforts starting to make an impact – including expanded access to naloxone. Despite the hopeful trend, more people are dying from overdose now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and experts say it's not the time to be complacent. 'I've been working on this issue for almost two decades, and I'm very scared at what's going to happen and what lies ahead, because it's not just about getting rid of bureaucrats, it's about undermining the entire system we've spent decades building up,' LaBelle said. 'I'm really afraid of going backwards.' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has talked about his own 14-year heroin addiction and recovery but has generally focused on the importance of preventing addiction through faith and community. At a drug summit in Nashville last week, Kennedy called addiction 'a source of misery but also a symptom of misery.' He emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs – even suggesting that banning cell phones in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He did not address recent cuts to HHS that many fear could jeopardize public health, including overdose prevention.
CNN
01-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Despite pledge to expand naloxone access, Trump administration proposal would cut overdose prevention programs
The Trump administration has named overdose prevention among its top drug policy priorities, but a preliminary budget proposal that was recently leaked suggests that it would cut about two dozen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. In a document published last month by the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, the first strategy listed under the first objective reads: 'To combat the drug crisis and the opioid epidemic, largely driven by fentanyl, the Administration will expand access to overdose prevention education and life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone.' However, among the potential cuts listed in the budget proposal in April was a program that directly expands access to naloxone: a $56 million annual grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, that helps distribute kits and trains first responders and others on how to use them. In fiscal year 2023, the First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or FR-CARA, program distributed more than 101,000 opioid overdose reversal medication kits and trained nearly 77,000 people on how to administer them, according to a budget request document from SAMHSA. Plans for fiscal year 2024 raised that goal to distributing 130,000 kits and training tens of thousands more. Spokespeople from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the US Department of Health and Human Services said that no final decisions have been made about the upcoming fiscal budget, including potential cuts to the naloxone program. A reorganization at HHS will consolidate SAMHSA under the new Administration for a Healthy America, an effort that the agency says is meant to 'more efficiently coordinate chronic care and disease prevention programs and harmonize health resources to low-income Americans.' But advocates worry that the loss of a key part of the strategy to address the overdose epidemic in the US could set progress back. 'Naloxone - the antidote to an overdose - saves lives every day and naloxone distribution programs have been part of the federal government's overdose response for over a decade,' Regina LaBelle, director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at Georgetown University, said in an email to CNN. 'The Administration recently renewed the opioid public health emergency but at the same time it's calling for the elimination of programs that are working to bring down overdose death rates. These actions make the emergency declaration ring hollow and worse still, if the programs are eliminated, will have serious negative impacts on communities nationwide.' The Cherokee Nation has received about $1 million through the FR-CARA grant, which it has put toward the tribe's harm reduction program. It estimates that 25,000 kits with Narcan – one of the brand names of naloxone – have been dispersed to law enforcement, schools and communities in northeastern Oklahoma. 'With this grant we also trained law enforcement officers, emergency management services and firefighters in our Cherokee Nation Reservation training to dispense Narcan, and armed them with Narcan to save lives when they roll up to the scene of an overdose. We know it has saved hundreds of lives not only Cherokee citizens, but Oklahomans,' Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in an email to CNN. 'All of these agencies could not afford Narcan if we did not provide it, so we are hopeful the grant continues because we know it's powerful and effective.' Annual overdose deaths have dropped about 23% since reaching a peak in mid-2023, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts have said that the decrease is probably the result of a wide range of persistent efforts starting to make an impact – including expanded access to naloxone. Despite the hopeful trend, more people are dying from overdose now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and experts say it's not the time to be complacent. 'I've been working on this issue for almost two decades, and I'm very scared at what's going to happen and what lies ahead, because it's not just about getting rid of bureaucrats, it's about undermining the entire system we've spent decades building up,' LaBelle said. 'I'm really afraid of going backwards.' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has talked about his own 14-year heroin addiction and recovery but has generally focused on the importance of preventing addiction through faith and community. At a drug summit in Nashville last week, Kennedy called addiction 'a source of misery but also a symptom of misery.' He emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs – even suggesting that banning cell phones in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He did not address recent cuts to HHS that many fear could jeopardize public health, including overdose prevention.
CNN
01-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Despite pledge to expand naloxone access, Trump administration proposal would cut overdose prevention programs
The Trump administration has named overdose prevention among its top drug policy priorities, but a preliminary budget proposal that was recently leaked suggests that it would cut about two dozen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. In a document published last month by the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, the first strategy listed under the first objective reads: 'To combat the drug crisis and the opioid epidemic, largely driven by fentanyl, the Administration will expand access to overdose prevention education and life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone.' However, among the potential cuts listed in the budget proposal in April was a program that directly expands access to naloxone: a $56 million annual grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, that helps distribute kits and trains first responders and others on how to use them. In fiscal year 2023, the First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or FR-CARA, program distributed more than 101,000 opioid overdose reversal medication kits and trained nearly 77,000 people on how to administer them, according to a budget request document from SAMHSA. Plans for fiscal year 2024 raised that goal to distributing 130,000 kits and training tens of thousands more. Spokespeople from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the US Department of Health and Human Services said that no final decisions have been made about the upcoming fiscal budget, including potential cuts to the naloxone program. A reorganization at HHS will consolidate SAMHSA under the new Administration for a Healthy America, an effort that the agency says is meant to 'more efficiently coordinate chronic care and disease prevention programs and harmonize health resources to low-income Americans.' But advocates worry that the loss of a key part of the strategy to address the overdose epidemic in the US could set progress back. 'Naloxone - the antidote to an overdose - saves lives every day and naloxone distribution programs have been part of the federal government's overdose response for over a decade,' Regina LaBelle, director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at Georgetown University, said in an email to CNN. 'The Administration recently renewed the opioid public health emergency but at the same time it's calling for the elimination of programs that are working to bring down overdose death rates. These actions make the emergency declaration ring hollow and worse still, if the programs are eliminated, will have serious negative impacts on communities nationwide.' The Cherokee Nation has received about $1 million through the FR-CARA grant, which it has put toward the tribe's harm reduction program. It estimates that 25,000 kits with Narcan – one of the brand names of naloxone – have been dispersed to law enforcement, schools and communities in northeastern Oklahoma. 'With this grant we also trained law enforcement officers, emergency management services and firefighters in our Cherokee Nation Reservation training to dispense Narcan, and armed them with Narcan to save lives when they roll up to the scene of an overdose. We know it has saved hundreds of lives not only Cherokee citizens, but Oklahomans,' Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in an email to CNN. 'All of these agencies could not afford Narcan if we did not provide it, so we are hopeful the grant continues because we know it's powerful and effective.' Annual overdose deaths have dropped about 23% since reaching a peak in mid-2023, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts have said that the decrease is probably the result of a wide range of persistent efforts starting to make an impact – including expanded access to naloxone. Despite the hopeful trend, more people are dying from overdose now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and experts say it's not the time to be complacent. 'I've been working on this issue for almost two decades, and I'm very scared at what's going to happen and what lies ahead, because it's not just about getting rid of bureaucrats, it's about undermining the entire system we've spent decades building up,' LaBelle said. 'I'm really afraid of going backwards.' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has talked about his own 14-year heroin addiction and recovery but has generally focused on the importance of preventing addiction through faith and community. At a drug summit in Nashville last week, Kennedy called addiction 'a source of misery but also a symptom of misery.' He emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs – even suggesting that banning cell phones in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He did not address recent cuts to HHS that many fear could jeopardize public health, including overdose prevention.
CNN
01-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Despite pledge to expand naloxone access, Trump administration proposal would cut overdose prevention programs
The Trump administration has named overdose prevention among its top drug policy priorities, but a preliminary budget proposal that was recently leaked suggests that it would cut about two dozen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. In a document published last month by the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, the first strategy listed under the first objective reads: 'To combat the drug crisis and the opioid epidemic, largely driven by fentanyl, the Administration will expand access to overdose prevention education and life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone.' However, among the potential cuts listed in the budget proposal in April was a program that directly expands access to naloxone: a $56 million annual grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, that helps distribute kits and trains first responders and others on how to use them. In fiscal year 2023, the First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or FR-CARA, program distributed more than 101,000 opioid overdose reversal medication kits and trained nearly 77,000 people on how to administer them, according to a budget request document from SAMHSA. Plans for fiscal year 2024 raised that goal to distributing 130,000 kits and training tens of thousands more. Spokespeople from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the US Department of Health and Human Services said that no final decisions have been made about the upcoming fiscal budget, including potential cuts to the naloxone program. A reorganization at HHS will consolidate SAMHSA under the new Administration for a Healthy America, an effort that the agency says is meant to 'more efficiently coordinate chronic care and disease prevention programs and harmonize health resources to low-income Americans.' But advocates worry that the loss of a key part of the strategy to address the overdose epidemic in the US could set progress back. 'Naloxone - the antidote to an overdose - saves lives every day and naloxone distribution programs have been part of the federal government's overdose response for over a decade,' Regina LaBelle, director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at Georgetown University, said in an email to CNN. 'The Administration recently renewed the opioid public health emergency but at the same time it's calling for the elimination of programs that are working to bring down overdose death rates. These actions make the emergency declaration ring hollow and worse still, if the programs are eliminated, will have serious negative impacts on communities nationwide.' The Cherokee Nation has received about $1 million through the FR-CARA grant, which it has put toward the tribe's harm reduction program. It estimates that 25,000 kits with Narcan – one of the brand names of naloxone – have been dispersed to law enforcement, schools and communities in northeastern Oklahoma. 'With this grant we also trained law enforcement officers, emergency management services and firefighters in our Cherokee Nation Reservation training to dispense Narcan, and armed them with Narcan to save lives when they roll up to the scene of an overdose. We know it has saved hundreds of lives not only Cherokee citizens, but Oklahomans,' Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in an email to CNN. 'All of these agencies could not afford Narcan if we did not provide it, so we are hopeful the grant continues because we know it's powerful and effective.' Annual overdose deaths have dropped about 23% since reaching a peak in mid-2023, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts have said that the decrease is probably the result of a wide range of persistent efforts starting to make an impact – including expanded access to naloxone. Despite the hopeful trend, more people are dying from overdose now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and experts say it's not the time to be complacent. 'I've been working on this issue for almost two decades, and I'm very scared at what's going to happen and what lies ahead, because it's not just about getting rid of bureaucrats, it's about undermining the entire system we've spent decades building up,' LaBelle said. 'I'm really afraid of going backwards.' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has talked about his own 14-year heroin addiction and recovery but has generally focused on the importance of preventing addiction through faith and community. At a drug summit in Nashville last week, Kennedy called addiction 'a source of misery but also a symptom of misery.' He emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs – even suggesting that banning cell phones in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He did not address recent cuts to HHS that many fear could jeopardize public health, including overdose prevention.
Fox News
07-04-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Four important ways Trump can tackle the drug crisis and Make America Healthy Again
President Donald Trump's newly issued statement on drug policy priorities shows his administration has embraced the Make America Healthy Again movement as it tackles American's top public health crisis: addiction. The next step must be to re-empower the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), elevating America's anti-drug movement to the prominence it deserves. Despite the media-coined title, "drug czar," leading America's drug policy has been relegated to the background of the national fight against illicit substances for years. This office is supposed to speak for the president on drug policy and have statutory control over the federal government's drug policy budget, spread across multiple agencies. But regrettably, in a world of high emotions, big egos, congressional subcommittees, vocal interest groups, and competing issues, Americans likely haven't seen or heard much from our drug czars in decades. If utilized the right way, there is tremendous potential to reduce the suffering that is the consequence of drug addiction in the U.S. With close to 100,000 people a year dying of overdoses, more deadly drugs coming across the border, and for-profit industries targeting young people as lifelong customers, restoring ONDCP's relevance is critical. Here are four things that should be done to revitalize the office now: ONDCP must use its megaphone to show the toll drug use has taken on the nation's communities. Speaking with families, law enforcement, educators, and medical professionals will put faces to the statistics of those whose lives have been forever altered by the drug crisis. This country needs a new anti-drug message, and it needs it now. A science-based media campaign, directed especially at young people, is needed to offset the harms of extreme drug normalization policies like marijuana legalization and Oregon's short-lived Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs. As the Department of Education ramps down, ONDCP should coordinate school-based prevention programs to ensure that every student learns about the dangers inherent in today's drug landscape, refusal skills and healthy coping strategies. ONDCP should use the full power of the office to lead a "drug cabinet" convened by Trump, that drives the execution of a coordinated national drug policy. In the spirit of DOGE, ONDCP should mandate each agency provide specifics about how it is fulfilling the directives laid out in the country's annual National Drug Control Strategy. Departments, initiatives and, yes, budgets, should be judged on how they're fulfilling their statutory mission – and the results they're achieving. ONDCP serves as a critical hub for interagency coordination, ensuring that disparate agencies work collaboratively and avoid duplication of effort and gaps in action. With today's medical and scientific evidence clearly demonstrating the harms of drug use, it's increasingly clear you can't truly want to Make America Healthy Again and think more drugs in our communities is a good thing. The addiction industry and international drug cartels, continue to create more potent, industrialized drugs are responsible for a public health crisis. Many of these drugs, including marijuana and THC-infused edibles are now medically proven to cause IQ loss, psychosis, schizophrenia, depression, suicidality and, of course, addiction. The director of ONDCP was a member of the president's cabinet in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations. Re-elevating the position would underscore the Trump administration's dedication to addressing the nation's drug crisis and answer the call of the 55% of Americans who, according to a 2024 Pew poll, think that reducing the availability of illegal drugs should be a top priority for President Trump and Congress. A science-based media campaign, directed especially at young people, is needed to offset the harms of extreme drug normalization policies like marijuana legalization and Oregon's short-lived Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs. Most Americans are familiar with the role and success of border czar Tom Homan. Similarly, elevating the position would restore considerable authority to the ONDCP team to shape news coverage, tout successes, push back against radical policies such as so-called "safe use" spaces, and provide a counterbalance to the steady stream of pro-drug messaging coming from the addiction industry and celebrity culture. President Trump, through ONDCP, can use the power of the presidency to make a lasting impact on the lives of millions of Americans. By deftly using the office's budgetary oversight, today's increasingly settled science on drug use, and the bully pulpit, we can reduce drug policy and the carnage it brings. Let's make ONDCP great again. The country needs that — now.
