(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump announced plans on Thursday to combat the surging opioid epidemic in America, beginning a move that would free up resources and loosen regulations to help combat drug deaths, but falling short of his August promise to declare the the epidemic a national emergency.
“This crisis of drug use, addiction, and overdose deaths in many years, it’s just been so long in the making. Addressing it will require all of our effort, and it will require us to confront the crisis in all of its very real complexity,” Trump said.
Trump will instruct acting Secretary of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan to designate the opioid epidemic a “public health crisis,” stopping short of designating it a “national emergency,” as was recommended in July by the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, a blue ribbon panel chaired by Gov. Chris Christie (R., N.J.).