Declares health emergency over opioids but no new funds to help

[struggle4progress]

Chris McGreal in Washington
Thursday 26 October 2017 16.51 EDT

... Trump spoke about the human toll of the epidemic, including the large numbers of babies suffering withdrawal symptoms after being born to mothers addicted to opioids ...

Trump sidestepped declaring a national emergency himself, which would have immediately unlocked billions of dollars of federal money from a disaster fund as happened in response to the recent wave of hurricanes to hit the US.

State governments have been pressing for federal money to fund long-term treatment programmes to help the estimated two million Americans in need of help to shake drug dependency ...

Senator Patrick Leahy spoke for a number of politicians in criticising the lack of additional funding. "The president's talk is just that – talk. There is no action or new funding behind the president’s empty words to address this crisis. This is not acceptable," he said ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/26/trump-opioids-crisis-health-emergency-funds

[struggle4progress]

1. What opioid announcement means -- and doesn't mean

By Dan Merica, CNN
Updated 3:25 PM ET, Thu October 26, 2017

... Trump, through the Public Health Services Act, directed his acting secretary of health and human services to declare a nationwide health emergency, a designation that will not automatically be followed by additional federal funding for the crisis ...

Senior White House officials told CNN that they will follow up this order by working with Congress to fund the Public Health Emergency Fund and to increase federal funding in year-end budget deals currently being negotiated in Congress. But both of those avenues are far from guaranteed, especially given all the other issues on Congress' plate ...

"A smarter play here would be for the administration to move beyond this declaration and pass the billions in funding needed to address this crisis. That is how you move the needle on this," Lemaitre said ...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/national-health-emergency-national-disaster/index.html

[Thor_MN]

2. If there were a way for GOP donors to make lots of money off of addicts, there would be funding.

Since saving addicts is not hugely profitable, they can't be bothered to care about someone who isn't rich.

[hatrack]

3. Maybe they can hire Zombie Nancy Reagan; she'll tell us "Just Say Bleeeeauuugggggghhh!!!"

.