US President Donald Trump has declared the nation's painkiller-addiction crisis a public health emergency.

Mr Trump announced a plan to target the abuse of opioids, which kill more than 140 Americans each day, at the White House.

The president has previously promised to declare a national emergency, which would have triggered federal funding to help states combat the drug epidemic.

The move instead redirects grant money to be used in dealing with the crisis.

Mr Trump said on Thursday: "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."

He added: "The United States is by far the largest consumer of these drugs using more opioid pills per person than any other country by far in the world."

Mr Trump is signing a presidential memorandum directing his acting health secretary to declare a nationwide public health emergency and ordering all federal agencies to take measures to reduce the number of opioid deaths, according to senior White House officials.

The order will also ease some regulations to allow states more latitude in how they use federal funds to tackle the problem.

Other elements of the directive include:

Allow patients further access to "telemedicine" so they can receive prescriptions without seeing a doctor
Make grants available to those who have had trouble finding work due to addiction
The Department of Health and Human Services will hire more people to address the crisis, particularly in rural areas
Allows states to shift federal funds from HIV treatments to opioids, since the two are linked as drug users often share infected needles

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41756705

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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions equated the opioid epidemic to a personal failing by many Americans who cannot “say no” to drugs on Thursday, and he said that marijuana could be serving as a gateway to the problem.

“People should say no to drug use. They have got to protect themselves first,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.

Sessions made his comments ahead of President Donald Trump’s declaration that the opioid crisis a public health emergency, a move that will redirect federal resources to help combat the problem.

But in response to a question about how best to combat the epidemic, Sessions cast the problem in a moral light.

“I do think that this whole country needs to not be so lackadaisical about drugs,” he said.

Sessions said on Thursday that “fentanyl people are really killers,” but did not clarify to whom he was specifically referring. He also said that he has heard from many police chiefs that drug addiction “starts with marijuana.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-opioids-sessions/u-s-attorney-general-says-people-should-just-say-no-to-opioids-idUSKBN1CV2ZG

In before pot needles!

Nope. Sessions beat you.

Dumbasses!

WTF are the states gonna do? Add more restrictions on doctors and CVS?

140 people a day vs 300 million.

Fucking stupid shit.

Growing gov't. It is the American way.

It seems like a self solving problem if we would stop saving them when they overdose.

Stop giving narcan to anyone not accidentally exposed and unschedule narcotics. Problem solves itself in a year.

I will never get that guys obsession with weed. He's an out of touch old twat, no different than the gun grabbers.

MAGA

I have a hard time believing that.  Can't find any solid stats on it, though.

government needs to stay out of medicine let the doctors handle it let them decide which one of their patients needs pain meds
and stay out of their way.

No it's not.


Anyway...

And the MSM is spinning this as a bad thing because he didn't go far enough.

marijuana a gateway drug...then so is alcohol...and soda pop...and high sugar high fat junk food.

Maybe fix the underlying issues that lead people to drugs.   And give people options who are dealing with debilitating pain and injury. If trump can't do anything about that then he's pissing in the wind. 

Doctors do have a habit of giving out pain meds to easily imo.

It won't be the addicts or the dealers that suffer but the chronic pain patients who have a legitimate need for such meds.

They should stop using taxpayers money to provide Narcan. It is a heroin problem and not a prescription problem.

Finally we have people that will take the War on Drugs seriously...........I can see the end coming!!


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Stupid pot heads. MAGA

well.. yes and no. truth is, after oxycontin was introduced, too many folks got oxcontin prescriptions and kept getting them. but now the government has done a 180 and folks cant get prescription opiods so the cartels have stepped in to fill the void, there needs to be something in between, an awareness that continued daily use of opiods will most like result in some level of addiction and on the other side that chronic opiod use may be of some benefit regardless.

but the gov only functions at two speeds ramming speed and little or no speed whatsoever.

and the whole marijuana is a gateway drug thing shows the level of moral reprobatism not seen since the 60s/70s. use of mind or body altering substances, from coffee, to nicotine and alcohol is simply part of most (all?) cultures and all such substances exist along a spectrum and once that spectrum is accepted it only becomes a matter of degree of use and ability to avoid certain drugs along that spectrum, that separates the casual user from the addict.

Wouldn't it make more sense to target alcohol?  Alcohol has to the first and most abused substance that Americans use and is proven to cause significant harm to the person and the community.

Government to the rescue!

Sessions needs to drop his obsession with Marijuana. He is going to cost Trump votes in 2020 over that bullshit.

Otherwise, I don't think Trump is going to allow legitimate users of prescription opioids to get the shaft...I read this as targeting illicit narcotics like Carfentanil and Heroin. The telemedicine statement leads me to believe he wants to make it easier for people who have a legitimate need for prescription opioids to get them legally.

The head of the FDA that Trump appointed is pro-weed, I think. So by extension he is probably also pro-Kratom.

Shut up.  You're going to get the drunkies all riled up.

no one is making folks do drugs.  It's always free will, and a conscious decision.  That things go wrong is just too bad.  If there is a crisis, it's that we have so many stupid people, but that is self correcting, I think.

It is a severe problem that shouldn't be underestimated. I certainly don't trust Jeff the swamp creature sessions to fix it, nor anyone else in Washington.

The difference is, commies love dope more than non-commies.  Anything that screws the commies is good.

I do not accept that it s a national crisis.

If you are addicted to them...get treatment.  If you overdose and die....that is just so sad.

Dopeheads are not worth my time worrying about them.

Every drug should be legal.  Most of the deaths are from people buying shit and don't know the strength or content in which it was produced.  Offer counseling and help at the drug centers.

BS.  Soda and chips led to me eating peanuts?   Or M&Ms?

What are the plans to fix it?

I mean, it's not like you are going to stop people from getting high.

Yes.  

When I did the whole gall-bladder thing, they sent me home with 25 vicadins.  (didn't need, didn't take).  A couple weeks later, when they pulled my stitches, the doctor tried to prescribe me 50 more...I told him flat out, that I didn't need them.....he said: "oh, you will....".  I took the scrip, in case he knew something I didn't.  I never filled it, but damn....


There is no doubt in my head that there is a problem with opiods, but I can't see a government program doing anything to help.

That was in his speech to being a key factor and to find a solution.

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i will play the debils advocate here.

if i was to abduct you, chain you in my basement and force out to take oxycontin while gradually increasing the dose over a month or so and i let you loose at the end, i would have 'modified' your free will. you may be the exception, but most folks that ended up in my basement would be addicts seeking 'relief' by finding continued sources of opiods. many folks that are now addicts started out on prescription opiods prescribed by their doctors for often valid reasons. the docs either got sloppy or didnt care, or the patients required a level of opiod treatment that created an addiction.

sometimes the practice of 'free will' can be very difficult.

Thats a pretty good way to explain it. And notice that anything which could help reduce drug ADDICTION... Like Iboga, Kratom, Weed, etc the pharmaceutical companies dump MILLIONS in to lobbying for it to be banned. They also make huge donations to politicians who will help them ban it. They'll take you out quicker than a Mexican cartel if you pose a threat to their profit margins.

What is the cost to society?Obesity and diabetes,along with many other health issues are costing us a lot of money as well.

If you smoke the reefer, we'll send you to jail, but if you shoot the junk, we'll write you a check.

Seems reasonable.

Not telling you how to do your job but those organizations can realize the consequences and set guidelines to correct the consequences.

I do a lot of root cause and countermeasure analysis and I think many could agree the root cause is over utilizing opioids. My mom was an anesthesiologist, said OxyContin was a true wonder drug but the addicts killed it's use.

I have met plenty of people that hate marijuana, they have never smoked it but are hooked on pills. also know a few that were hooked on pills and then would smoke while going through withdraws till the next prescription was called in.
Even when i was in highschool the potheads never moved off pot and then you had the people whos first drug was acid and the like, i cant think of a single person i know that started smoking pot and moved on to heavier drugs.

the war on pot is a waste of time and money imho, i dont plan on smoking any but think it shouldnt be classed like it is.

Look around the country, its easier to score pills or H then pot i a whole lot of places

That's exactly what they will do.  Your person dying from cancer will have a much more difficult time getting meds for his pain and it will not affect the criminal junkies at all.

Diabetes kills nearly twice as many Americans a year and medical malpractice kills more than that.

Why do worthless, no self-respect having dumbass, drug abusing shitlords rate so high on the concern chart?

#LetPeopleOwnTheConsequencesOfTheirChoices 

#FentanylCuresOpiodAbuse

I dont believe thats true.  the chemical "hook" only activates in certain weak people.  I believe the study involved US troops in vietnam.  most of them were only addicted in theater and kicked it when they came home.

Nailed it.

Rating hospitals and physicians on patient satisfaction is the worst metric ever.

For fucks sake start letting the dumb shits ODing on this crap die instead of bringing them back to life over and over and over and over ........ and see if that doesn't put a dent in the numbers.

But, but, but every addict used to be a successful business man with a family, he got hooked by accident. This is the BS narrative i am tired of hearing.  Around here you know good and damn well the types of people using this shit.  Of 1000 addicts, 999 of them were pieces of shit before they started using.

I honestly don't understand the Oxycottin/ opioids thing.

I've taken some pain meds in my life & when I didn't need em it was no-big to not have them.

I have a prescription for muscle relaxers & I hate taking those as well. Yeah it helps my back relax but it makes me feel like crap. If I take more than 1 I get a splitting headache.

A whole prescription of 90pils lasts me over a 1 1/2yrs.

I'm glad Sessions has the gall to say what needs to be said about the gateway effects of marijuana.