President signals reversal after previously appearing to oppose declaration: ‘We’re going to draw it up and we’re going to make it a national emergency’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Donald Trump signaled he could soon declare a state of emergency in an attempt to deal with America’s opioid overdose crisis.

A commission reporting to the president said recently that declaring a state of emergency was its “first and most urgent recommendation”.

But Trump, in his first remarks on the subject, appeared to set his face against treating the epidemic as a health emergency – calling instead for tougher prison sentences and “strong, strong law enforcement”.

Is Donald Trump finally about to act on America's opioid crisis? Read more

However, returning to the issue on Thursday, Trump seemed to have changed his tone. “We’re going to draw it up and we’re going to make it a national emergency,” he said, adding the administration is “drawing documents now to so attest”.

“It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had,” Trump said at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, where he is on a “working vacation”.

The president can declare a state of emergency two legal ways: he could use either the Stafford Act or the Public Health Service Act, which is specific to health emergencies and can be declared by the health secretary.

Trump compared the opioid epidemic to LSD.

“When I was growing up they had the LSD, and they had certain generations of drugs,” Trump said. “There’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years. And I have to say this in all fairness, this is a worldwide problem, not just a United States problem. This is happening worldwide.”

In fact, while drug overdoses happen all over the world, the US leads by a significant margin. Though the nation has just 4% of the world’s population, the US also has 27% of the world’s drug overdose deaths, according to the UN’s 2017 World Drug Report.

For example, for every million Americans between 15 and 64 years old, 245 people a year die of drug overdoses. In Mexico, four people per million die of drug overdoses.

Trump’s announcement came one week after a White House commission on curbing opioid addiction recommended the president make the emergency declaration. Emergency declarations are rarely used on a national scale and are typically reserved for natural disasters and infectious diseases such as the H1N1 flu virus.

If the administration follows through, an emergency declaration would empower the government to quickly expand access to in-patient treatment services and negotiate lower prices for the overdose reversal drug naloxone, according to the commission’s interim report.

It could also remove some layers of bureaucracy to expedite data-sharing, funds distribution and laws that improve access to treatment. Addiction experts said the declaration would send a message that the Trump administration’s response to the crisis emphasizes a “health-first” approach.

So far, the administration has instead favored policies that limit access to health care, harshly penalize drug users and cut funds for agencies tasked with addressing the crisis.

Trump convened the bipartisan opioid commission, which is led by the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, in March. The commission’s final report is due by 1 October.