The Trump administration wants to cut the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by 94 percent, from $388 million to $24 million, Politico reported on Friday. The office is responsible for coordinating the nation’s drug-control strategy, including law enforcement, drug use prevention, and addiction treatment efforts.
White House officials appeared on talk shows on Sunday to say that no cut proposals have been finalized, Bloomberg reports. Some Trump administration officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, have reiterated the administration’s commitment to reducing drug addiction and overdose deaths in the United States.
More than 50,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2015, including more than 33,000 who died with prescription painkillers, heroin, or related drugs in their systems, according to government data. Since becoming president, Donald Trump has created a special commission—which was supposed to be funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy—to study opioid use in the U.S. In addition, Price has sent out $485 million worth of grants to states to develop their own anti-addiction programs.
The Trump administration’s final proposed budget is expected to be released later this month.
