DRUGS/HEALTHCARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Weeks before the presidential election, at a packed rally in New Hampshire, Donald J. Trump recounted the story of a young woman and her boyfriend who had fatally overdosed within a year of each other. He promised not just a border wall to keep drugs out, but also more access to treatment.
‘We’re going to take care of it,’ he said of the opioid addiction epidemic, which has disproportionately hit states that were crucial to his election victory. ‘What’s taking so long?’
Five months into his term, though, President Trump has enthusiastically supported a health care bill that would deeply cut the Medicaid program that has provided treatment to thousands of addicted Americans. He has yet to fill the nation’s top public health and drug policy jobs. And while he has appointed a bipartisan commission on the opioid crisis, which will hold its first official meeting on Friday [6-16-17], it remains to be seen how much attention the panel can command from Mr. Trump’s turbulent administration.”
-Abby Goodnough, “Trump Vowed to ‘Take Care’ of Opioid Crisis. Some See Few Signs of Action.,” The New York Times Online, June 16, 2017