CRIME/DRUGS/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency Thursday [8-10-17], establishing a formal designation for the crisis that could shape the way his administration responds…
A White House commission on the opioid crisis led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time Republican rival and subsequent backer of Mr. Trump, recommended the president declare a national emergency in a preliminary report released last week.
Declaring an emergency under the Public Health Service Act, or the Stafford Act, would ’empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the executive branch even further to deal with this loss of life,’ Mr. Christie’s commission said. The Stafford Act was designed to organize federal assistance to natural disasters…
Some antiaddiction activists have questioned the value of the move beyond its symbolism.
‘The critical question if you declare an emergency is what are you going to do that you couldn’t do yesterday,’ said Joshua Sharfstein, an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
He was one of several public health experts who wrote last year a letter to officials in the Democratic administration of former President Barack Obama urging such a declaration.”
-Louise Radnofsky and Arian Campo-Flores, “Trump Declares Opioid Epidemic a National Emergency,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 10, 2017 07:03pm