Despite designating the opioid epidemic a national public-health emergency last year, President Donald Trump plans on administering significant budget cuts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Politico reported Friday.
Trump’s plan would result in cutting 95 percent of ONDCP’s budget, translating to about $340 million, according to Politico. This is the second time the Trump administration has proposed the budget cuts to the department that oversees and provides “administrative and financial support to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.”
The reductions would result from shifting two of the ONDCP’s grant programs to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, according to Politico. Trump has yet to appoint a director to the ONDCP and officials are worried about the vacancies and inexperience of current leaders in the office.
Created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, the ONDCP produces the National Drug Control Strategy, an 83-page document offering guidelines to reduce illicit drug use and drug-related incidents. With skyrocketing rates of opioid abuse and more than 64,000 American drug-related deaths in 2016, the nation has struggled with ways to aid states where abuse and deaths have become rampant. Significant cuts now could mean even more limited attention and funding to states in need of substance-use prevention and treatment.
