Critics Say Trump's Opioid Epidemic Plan Is "Counteractive"

Critics Say Trump's Opioid Epidemic Plan Is "Counteractive"
Fecha de publicación: 
27 October 2017
0
Imagen principal: 

Critics believe that Trump's plan is "counteractive" and an "empty promise" because it fails to address the roots causes of the U.S.' opioid epidemic.

United States President Donald Trump announced a plan to target the U.S. opioid epidemic in a speech.

Trump said during his speech: "More people are dying from drug overdoses today than from gun homicides and motor vehicles combined.

"These overdoses are driven by a massive increase in addiction to prescription painkillers, heroin and other opioids."

Trump signed a presidential memorandum that would declare the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency, giving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wide latitude to direct federal agencies to combat the problem.

The initiative will give patients deepened access to ‘telemedicine’ so that they won’t need to see a doctor regularly, provide federal grant money to those whose employment prospects have suffered due to addiction, increase Department of Health and Human Services employees (particularly in rural areas that have lacked access to federal assistance), and allow state agencies to have more discretion in their use of federal funds to fight the epidemic and reduce overdose deaths.

"I'm glad that the government is finally recognizing an issue that's taken lives and raised crime rates throughout the country.  It's gotten way out of hand," said Brett Handorf, a native of Burlington, Kentucky, a state that has been one of the most affected by the increase in opioid abuse.

The opioid epidemic has spread across rural and urban areas alike at tremendous human cost. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with 52,404 lethal drug overdoses in 2015 alone, a number which is ever-increasing, according to a report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"Nearly every single person in Northern Kentucky knows of someone affected by this epidemic. I couldn't really see what was happening in my community until several people from my high school passed away from heroin," said James Gootee, a Hebron, Kentucky native. "Although heroin usually destroys and ultimately ends the lives of people who use it, I've personally seen several success stories from people who've fully recovered from their addiction."

Some critics believe the initiative is not enough, however.

The president will not use disaster relief funds to combat the crisis and will instead tap into the Public Health Emergency Fund, which reportedly only contains $57,000. Critics have indicated that this move shows a lack of substantial effort on the part of the administration.

"From 1999 to 2008, overdose death rates, sales and substance use disorder treatment admissions related to prescription pain relievers increased in parallel," the report said. "In 2012, 259 million prescriptions were written for opioids, which is more than enough to give every American adult their own bottle of pills." The report also notes that 4 in 5 heroin users, an opiate derived from morphine and closely related to prescription painkillers, began their cycle of addiction by abusing prescription painkillers.

"I think it's insulting to place something that was intentionally engineered in the same category as things like hurricanes or forest fires. This crisis was produced for profit, and to the detriment of working class communities all over the country. I find the attempts the administration makes to draw attention to the crisis to be counteractive unless they address the causes of the problem in the first place," wrote Benjamin Sanning, a student activist and organizer for the Northern Kentucky University Student Socialists, referring to the for-profit U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

Amid Deadly Opioid Crisis, Canada Eases Rules on Opening New Supervised Injection Sites

Trump, and the Republican controlled U.S. Congress, have promised to cut the Affordable Care Act and slash Medicaid benefits, which they see as an over-involvement of government in healthcare.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted: "Trump is right that the opioid crisis is a national emergency. Unfortunately, his announcement today was nothing more than an empty promise."

"Millions depends on Medicaid for opioid treatment. Trump's solution is to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion. That is a disgrace," Sanders continued in a following tweet.

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.