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 America's opioid epidemic, especially damaging in rural areas where
Trump is popular, has been a focus for the Republican president.
Little has come of Trump's calls for executing drug dealers, but on
other fronts the administration has taken some action. Trump has
worked to boost funding for treatment and raise awareness of the
problem.
On Tuesday, the government charged Rochester Drug Co-operative Inc
and executives of the major drug distributor. The company agreed to
pay $20 million and enter a deferred prosecution agreement to
resolve charges it turned a blind eye to thousands of suspicious
orders for opioids.
Deaths from opioid overdose in the United States jumped 17 percent
in 2017 from a year earlier to more than 49,000 according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl surged 45 percent in
that time, according to the CDC.
Hundreds of lawsuits by state and local governments accuse
drugmakers such as Purdue Pharma of deceptively marketing opioids,
and distributors such as AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc
and McKesson Corp of ignoring that they were being diverted for
improper uses.
Trump has said he convinced Chinese President Xi Jinping in a
December meeting in Argentina to designate fentanyl as a controlled
substance.
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China last month listed all fentanyl-related substances as
controlled narcotics after criticism from Trump, though its
government blamed U.S. culture for abuse of the drug and said the
amount of fentanyl going from China into the United States was
"extremely limited."
Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in
October 2017. He plans to provide an update on his administration's
work on the issue at the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, a White
House spokesman said.
Trump has used the crisis to support his call for building a wall on
the border with Mexico, saying it would help keep out drugs and curb
the crisis.
Heroin from Mexico accounted for 86 percent of the heroin found on
U.S. streets, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s most recent
annual narcotic report. Heroin, unlike fentanyl, is derived from the
seeds of the opium poppy plant.
Last week, U.S. health officials said they will spend $350 million
in four states to study ways to best deal with the opioid crisis on
the local level, with a goal of reducing opioid-related overdose
deaths by 40 percent over three years in selected communities in
those states.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing
by Kevin Drawbaugh and David Gregorio)
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