Trump declares opioid crisis a 'national public health emergency'
The President pledges to overcome a crisis that kills nearly 100 Americans a day - more than gun violence and car crashes.
Thursday 26 October 2017 22:09, UK
Donald Trump has declared America's use of opioids a national public health emergency, calling it "the worst drug crisis in American history".
The President will direct all executive agencies to use every appropriate emergency authority to fight the opioid crisis, which he described as a "worldwide problem".
"We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic - we can do it," he said in a speech at the White House.
He said the "crisis of drug use, addiction and overdose deaths, in many years" requires "all of our effort and will require us to confront the crisis in all of its very real complexity."
The President said that last year at least 64,000 Americans died from overdoses - the leading cause of unintentional deaths in the US "by far".
More people die from drugs than from "gun homicides and motor vehicles combined", he added.
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The US uses more opioid pills per person than any other country in the world. The crisis kills nearly 100 Americans a day.
"No part of our society, not young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural has been spared this plague of drug addiction," the President said.
The Trump administration plans to announce a new policy to overcome a "restrictive 1970s-era rule" that prevents states from providing care at certain treatment facilities with more than 16 beds for those suffering from drug addiction.
"You should expect to see approvals that will unlock treatment for people in need and those approvals will come very very fast, not like in the past, " said the President.
Mr Trump's announcement of an emergency will allow the government to redirect resources, but it won't bring new funds to the fight - causing Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi to call his declaration "words without money".
To end the epidemic, Mr Trump said there would need to be a mobilisation of government, local communities and private organisations.
The US government will be working with doctors and medical professionals to implement best practices for "safe opioid prescribing" and "requiring federally employed prescribers" to receive special training.
"I want the American people to know the federal government is aggressively fighting the opioid epidemic on all fronts," he said.