The White House\u2019s newly released strategy for tackling the nation\u2019s drug and addiction crisis calls for a number of ambitious public health approaches that some experts say are laudable but will be hampered by the administration\u2019s own actions.<\/p>\n
The sweeping 195-page National Drug Control Strategy<\/a>, published May 4, advocates for making access to treatment easier than getting drugs, preventing young people from developing addictions in the first place, increasing support for people in recovery, and reducing overdose deaths.<\/p>\n Those broad goals are widely supported by public health researchers, addiction treatment clinicians, and recovery advocates.<\/p>\n But accomplishing such goals will be difficult in the face of the administration\u2019s mass layoffs of federal employees<\/a>, cancellation of research<\/a> and community grants<\/a>, attacks on organizations and practices<\/a> that serve people who use drugs, and cuts to Medicaid<\/a>, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people that is the largest payer for addiction and mental healthcare nationwide.<\/p>\n Many components of the National Drug Control Strategy are \u201cthings that we would agree with and that we fully support,\u201d said Libby Jones<\/a>, who leads overdose prevention efforts at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, a public health advocacy group.<\/p>\n But there are \u201cdisconnects in what the strategy says is important and then what they\u2019re actually going to fund,\u201d she said of the Trump administration. \u201cThose inconsistencies feel particularly loud in this strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House\u2019s National Drug Control Strategy, released every two years<\/a>, is a touchstone document meant to lay out the federal government\u2019s coordinated approach to what in recent decades has been one of the country\u2019s defining problems.<\/p>\n Since 2000, more than 1.1 million people<\/a> have died of drug overdoses. Although deaths have decreased recently<\/a>, the numbers remain elevated compared with earlier decades, and research suggests<\/a> overdose death rates among Black Americans and Native Americans are disproportionately high.<\/p>\n The strategy document published this week is the first of President Trump\u2019s current term. In keeping with the administration\u2019s approach to addiction issues, it places heavy emphasis on law enforcement efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs. The document repeatedly refers to the ongoing \u201cwar\u201d against \u201cforeign terrorist organizations\u201d \u2014 the Trump administration\u2019s term for drug cartels \u2014 and touts increased enforcement at U.S. borders.<\/p>\n It also outlines plans<\/a> to implement artificial intelligence technologies to screen for illicit drugs brought into the country and wastewater testing to detect illegal drug use nationwide.<\/p>\n The second half of the strategy focuses on reducing the demand for drugs through public health prevention efforts, addiction treatment, and support for people in recovery. It promotes the role of religion in recovery and calls for the widespread use of overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone.<\/p>\n In a news release, the White House\u2019s Office of National Drug Control Policy called the document a \u201croadmap\u201d that will \u201ccontinue dismantling the drug supply and defeating the scourge of illicit drugs in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment about how the strategy aligns with its other actions.<\/p>\n In December, Trump signed a reauthorization of the SUPPORT Act<\/a>, which continues several grants related to treatment and recovery and the requirement for Medicaid to cover all FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder. In January, he announced the Great American Recovery Initiative<\/a>, including a $100-million investment<\/a> to address homelessness, opioid addiction, and public safety.<\/p>\n However, few details have been provided about the initiative, and in January, about a month after the SUPPORT Act passed, billions of dollars in addiction-related grants were abruptly terminated and reinstated<\/a> within a frantic 24-hour period.<\/p>\n That \u201cwhiplash\u201d left \u201ca sense of instability and uncertainty in the field,\u201d said Yngvild Olsen<\/a>, a national adviser with the Manatt Health consultancy. She led substance use treatment policy at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, under the Biden administration and left about six months into Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n That insecurity was exacerbated by the president\u2019s 2027 budget request<\/a>, which proposes cuts to several addiction and mental health programs and the consolidation of key federal agencies working on those matters. Jones\u2019 group and nearly 100 others in the field have signed a letter<\/a> asking Congress to reject the proposals, as it did with similar requests last year.<\/p>\n The national drug strategy adds new, potentially contradictory information to this confusing landscape.<\/p>\n Increasing Access to Treatment<\/b><\/p>\n One of the most significant public health goals in the strategy, mentioned at least half a dozen times, is to make it easier to get treatment than it is to buy illegal drugs.<\/p>\n National data underscores the necessity: More than 80% of Americans<\/a> who need substance use treatment don\u2019t receive it.<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s actions on health insurance may make it difficult to improve that statistic.<\/p>\n Medicaid is the main source of healthcare coverage<\/a> for adults with opioid use disorder. When implemented, the Medicaid work requirements in Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are projected to strip that coverage from about 1.6 million people<\/a> with substance use disorders.<\/p>\n The last time Medicaid rolls were purged \u2014 after COVID-era protections expired<\/a> \u2014 many people who had been receiving medication treatment for opioid addiction stopped it and fewer people started treatment, according to a study published last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Olsen, who is also an addiction medicine doctor, said she loves the strategy\u2019s emphasis on making treatment readily available to anyone who wants it. But she said that\u2019s \u201chard to really imagine when now people may have to pay for it themselves because they may be losing their Medicaid insurance coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n One analysis estimated<\/a> the upcoming Medicaid changes could lead 156,000 people to lose access to medications for opioid use disorder and result in more than 1,000 additional fatal overdoses per year.<\/p>\n People with private insurance may be affected too.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has refused to enforce<\/a> Biden-era regulations aimed at bolstering mental health parity<\/a>, the idea that insurers must cover mental illness and addiction treatment comparably to physical treatments. And recently, the administration said it would redo those regulations<\/a> altogether, raising fears that addiction treatment could become increasingly unaffordable.<\/p>\n The administration did not respond to specific questions about how it reconciles its actions on Medicaid and parity with the goal of increasing treatment.<\/p>\n Prioritizing Prevention<\/b><\/p>\n The strategy highlights preventing addictions before they begin as one of the keys to reducing demand for drugs. It calls for \u201cpromoting a drug-free America as the social norm\u201d and implementing school and community-based programs that are backed by science.<\/p>\n \u201cInvesting in primary prevention, before drug use starts, saves lives and resources,\u201d it says, citing several studies<\/a> about the cost-effectiveness<\/a> of such programs.<\/p>\n Yet, the president\u2019s budget proposes cuts to these types of programs, and federal layoffs have decimated the agencies that would implement such work.<\/p>\n The White House\u2019s most recent budget request<\/a> proposes cutting roughly $220 million from SAMHSA\u2019s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention<\/a> and nearly $40 million from the Drug-Free Communities<\/a> program.<\/p>\n Since the new administration started, SAMHSA has lost about half of its staff<\/a>, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is down about a quarter<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not clear to me that they\u2019re really going to be able to have the funds or the people to be able to carry that out,\u201d Olsen said of the strategy\u2019s prevention goals.<\/p>\n Another wrinkle appears in the strategy\u2019s discussion of marijuana. The document points to marijuana use as one of the drivers of increasing drug use disorders and reports that \u201cconvergent evidence from multiple sources\u201d suggests cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis. It calls for developing new tools to treat marijuana withdrawal and addiction.<\/p>\n However, just two weeks ago, the White House moved to reclassify<\/a> medical marijuana to a lower tier of scheduled substances and is moving to hold a hearing<\/a> to do the same for marijuana broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration, on the one hand, is moving in a direction of liberalizing access to cannabis,\u201d Jones said, \u201cbut at the same time, in the strategy, it talks about the dangers of doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a disconnect there that just makes you question: Which one do you believe?\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The administration did not respond to specific questions about its marijuana policies.<\/p>\n Stopping Overdose Deaths<\/b><\/p>\n One of the more surprising elements of the National Drug Control Strategy comes in the last paragraph of the final chapter. It focuses on public drug-checking programs, which often involve using test strips to help people who use drugs determine whether there are more-dangerous substances, such as fentanyl or xylazine, in the batch they bought. That helps them determine whether or how to safely use those drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cRapid test strips and similar technologies that detect fentanyl and other drugs are an important tool that should be legal,\u201d the strategy document says.<\/p>\n However, SAMHSA announced in a recent letter<\/a> that it would no longer pay for test strips, as part of the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cclear shift away from harm reduction and practices that facilitate illicit drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration has similarly attacked harm reduction programs in an executive order<\/a> and its budget<\/a> requests<\/a>. It did not respond to specific questions about how this position interacts with the drug control strategy.<\/p>\n Regina LaBelle<\/a>, a Georgetown University professor who served as acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Biden administration, wrote about the contradiction in a blog post<\/a>: \u201cIt is the height of rhetoric over reality to champion a tool while simultaneously cutting off the funding used to acquire it.\u201d<\/p>\n