The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis

The Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis

The primary goal of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is to develop an effective set of recommendations for the President to combat the opioid crisis and drug addiction in our nation. Many of the recommendations that follow will require appropriations from Congress into the Public Health Emergency Fund, for block grants to states and to DOJ for enforcement and judicial improvements. Notwithstanding this core mission, it is vital to address the influences that transformed the United States into the world leader of opioid prescribing, opioid addiction, and opioid overdose deaths. It is not the Commission's charge to quantify the amount of these resources, so we do not do so in this report. The Commission urges Congress to respond to the President's declaration of a public health emergency and fulfill their constitutionally delegated duty and appropriate sufficient funds to implement the Commission's recommendations. 175 Americans are dying every day. Congress must act.