Trump Says He'll Combat the Opioid Crisis, but His Agenda Could Make It Worse

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a listening session on the problems of drug addiction and overdose at the White House in Washington, DC, March 29, 2017. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times)President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a listening session on the problems of drug addiction and overdose at the White House in Washington, DC, March 29, 2017. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times)

Like his predecessor, President Trump has promised to take bold action to address the nation’s opioid crisis and overdose epidemic, but critics say his efforts to undo President Obama’s signature health care law could prevent large numbers of people with opioid use disorders from receiving treatment.

Others fear that instead of expanding community access to opioid disorder treatments, the Trump administration will push poor and marginalized people into “treatment” within the brutal confines of the prison system.

With his “law and order” approach to governing, Trump is poised to reverse federal momentum on opioids, shifting the focus from public health back to law enforcement and incarceration. What could that look like, besides more drug arrests? For starters, the man rumored to be Trump’s pick for drug czar, Rep. Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, has called for placing parents facing minor drug charges in a “hospital-slash-prison.”

The government reports that 435,000 people in the United States used heroin in 2014 and 1.9 million had opioid use disorders stemming from prescription painkillers, but researchers say 80 percent did not receive treatment. When treatment for opioid dependence is not available, some people turn to street drugs like heroin and fentanyl, causing rates of deadly overdoses to skyrocket. Opioid-related overdoses killed 33,000 people in 2015 alone.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made a dent in this problem by requiring insurance companies to cover treatments for opioid use disorder and expanding Medicaid benefits for lower-income people. However, Republicans are reportedly considering a revised health care overhaul that would gut these key ACA protections and cut Medicaid spending by $839 billion over the next decade.

The White…

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