Trump Administration Plans to Effectively Kill Office Fighting Opioid Epidemic

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is outraged that the Trump administration is planning to effectively kill the Office of National Drug Control Policy – the government arm that's been helping coordinate the national effort to combat the U.S. opioid and heroin epidemic. A leaked memo, first obtained by CBS, shows the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, is proposing cutting the drug office's budget by more than 95 percent, or $364 million.

"There are several things that are going on that don't make sense, when we have the biggest public health crisis this country has faced since the AIDS epidemic – we're losing more people to opioid overdose right now than we lost at the height of the AIDS epidemic," Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill tells Rolling Stone. "So it really should be all hands on deck, not, 'Let's figure out a way to minimize the federal involvement.'"

McCaskill, who was a prosecutor in Kansas City in the Nineties, has seen the office make an impact on the ground. She says she coordinated with officials in the Office of National Drug Control Policy for public-education campaigns and that the agency provided information on tactics being used in communities across the U.S. – helping coordinate a national response to problems facing local communities from coast to coast. The office also provided her vital information and resources on treatment and drug court programs.

"It had a big impact on what we were doing in terms of fighting methamphetamine, at the time, and some of the gang wars we had over crack cocaine. ... They were very helpful," McCaskill says. "I think it has been a resource for people around the country in the law enforcement community and in the health community – it kind of married the two."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trump-admin-to-effectively-kill-office-fighting-opioid-epidemic-w481648?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=051117_17

[we can do it]

1. Makes sense. You had to be high to vote for drump.