ANC
Well-Known Member
he scale of the opioid crisis gripping the United States is hard to fathom. Since 2000, lethal overdoses from opioid use have tripled, and the problem is so widespread Centers for Disease Control researchers have concluded it is dragging down the national life expectancy. Though President Donald Trump has declared the epidemic a national public health emergency, he had not until Wednesday appointed an official to coordinate the major federal response experts say is needed to fight the problem.
That the official he settled on is Kellyanne Conway should tell you everything you need to know about how little actual thought this administration has put into solving the crisis.
Per BuzzFeed, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Conway—a pollster and Trump confidante best known for repeatedly lying to the public and who has no medical or public health experience—will be overseeing the White House’s opioid control efforts. As Conway takes the reins, the BuzzFeed report noted, the White House has left the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s leadership role empty, failed to release any written opioid-control strategy, and has not requested funds to deplete a national public health emergency fund that currently sits at just $66,000.
What will Conway bring to the table? Per the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, assisting New Jersey Governor Chris Christie push through a commission report detailing how to fight opioid abuse has been part of her portfolio for some time. Christie’s report described the steps needed as relatively simple, per BuzzFeed, including limiting over-prescriptions, blocking Chinese fentanyl exports, and distributing naloxone, a drug that can stop fatal overdoses, to communities.
But as Quartz noted, Conway’s public record of statements on the issue is sparse and far from encouraging. She’s characterized opioids as a “war,” said the “best way to stop people dying from overdoses and drug abuse is by not starting in the first place,” and suggested that individual “will” was as important as funding while defending Medicaid cuts.
Later, Politico’s Sarah Karlin-Smith reported, the White House even dialed back expectations of how much time Conway will really be devoting to the issue.
... https://gizmodo.com/we-regret-to-inform-you-the-white-houses-solution-to-th-1820867198