Trump Unveils Plan to Streamline Addiction Response
- The White House on Thursday announced a new effort to streamline the country's response to the drug and alcohol epidemic, aiming to treat addiction as a medical condition,...
- The declaration of the Great American Recovery Initiative lacked specific details.
- The initiative will be jointly lead by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
The White House on Thursday announced a new effort to streamline the country’s response to the drug and alcohol epidemic, aiming to treat addiction as a medical condition, not a moral failing.
The declaration of the Great American Recovery Initiative lacked specific details. President Trump signed an executive order during an Oval Office ceremony framing addiction as a chronic,treatable disease and pledging federal coordination. Officials spoke broadly about preventing and treating addiction, but offered no specifics or new funding commitments.
The initiative will be jointly lead by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kathryn Burgum, wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Both are in long-term recovery from alcohol addiction.
“This initiative represents a basic shift from reaction to prevention, from fragmentation to coordination, from stigma to science, from short-term fixes to long-term recovery,” Burgum said. “For the first time, we’re aligning federal leadership across health, justice, labor, housing, veterans, social services, the faith office, and education, around one single shared truth: When addiction is treated early and correctly, people recover and families heal.”
The announcement raises questions, as a similar entity already exists. The Office of National Drug control Policy (ONDCP), established in 1989, already coordinates efforts across 19 federal agencies and oversees a $44 billion budget to address addiction, according to the White House website.