The Opiate of the Masses is Opioids –

November 28, 2020 – More than 70 public health organizations in a Tuesday letter to Biden urged him to elevate the head of the White House drug office into his Cabinet, citing an “unprecedented addiction crisis.” The position, also known as the nation’s “drug czar” — a term Biden coined nearly 40 years ago — was added to the Cabinet by President George W. Bush but was removed by Obama shortly after he took office.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy was largely sidelined by political staff during Trump’s first year in office, as the new administration sought to make good on Trump’s campaign promise to end the drug epidemic. Trump’s annual budgets repeatedly made deep cuts to the office’s funding, though Congress ignored his requests. The Trump-installed head of the office, Jim Carroll, was previously a prosecutor with no experience in health policy and has largely focused on law enforcement and cutting off illegal drug shipments. Last December, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the office failed to issue a national strategy. Biden, who often spoke during the campaign about his son Hunter’s struggles with substance abuse, has called for record investments in drug prevention and treatment while also holding drug companies accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic. But his $125 ment plan could face resistance in a bitterly divided Congress that for months has failed to agree on a coronavirus relief package, even as infections soar and jobless claims rise.  More than 70 public health organizations in a Tuesday letter to Biden urged him to elevate the head of the White House drug office into his Cabinet, citing an “unprecedented addiction crisis.” The position, also known as the nation’s “drug czar” — a term Biden coined nearly 40 years ago — was added to the Cabinet by President George W. Bush but was removed by Obama shortly after he took office.The Office of National Drug Control Policy was largely sidelined by political staff during Trump’s first year in office, as the new administration sought to make good on Trump’s campaign promise to end the drug epidemic. Trump’s annual budgets repeatedly made deep cuts to the office’s funding, though Congress ignored his requests. The Trump-installed head of the office, Jim Carroll, was previously a prosecutor with no experience in health policy and has largely focused on law enforcement and cutting off illegal drug shipments. Last December, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the office failed to issue a national strategy.

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