Senator Carrico on Trump Opioid Drug Plan

From Virginia Senator Bill Carrico, R-40:

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Trump Releases New Plan to Curb Opiate Abuse

"We will work to strengthen vulnerable families and communities, and we will help to build and grow a stronger, healthier, and drug-free society." – President Donald J. Trump ADDRESSING THE DRIVING FORCES OF THE OPIOID CRISIS: President Donald J. Trump’s Initiative to Stop Opioids Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand will confront the driving forces behind the opioid crisis. President Trump’s Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse will address factors fueling the opioid crisis, including over-prescription, illicit drug supplies, and insufficient access to evidence-based treatment, primary prevention, and recovery support services. The President’s Opioid Initiative will: Reduce drug demand through education, awareness, and preventing over-prescription. Cut off the flow of illicit drugs across our borders and within communities. Save lives now by expanding opportunities for proven treatments foropioid and other drug addictions. REDUCE DEMAND AND OVER-PRESCRIPTION: President Trump’s OpioidInitiative will educate Americans about the dangers of opioid and other drug use and seek to curb over-prescription. Launch a nationwide evidence-based campaign to raise public awareness about the dangers of prescription and illicit opioid use, as well as other drug use. Support research and development efforts for innovative technologies and additional therapies designed to prevent addiction and decrease the use ofopioids in pain management. This will include supporting research and development for a vaccine to prevent opioid addiction and non-addictive pain management options. Reduce the over-prescription of opioids which has the potential to lead Americans down a path to addiction or facilitate diversion to illicit use. Implement a Safer Prescribing Plan to achieve the following objectives: Cut nationwide opioid prescription fills by one-third within three years. Ensure that 75 percent of opioid prescriptions reimbursed by Federal healthcare programs are issued using best practices within three years, and 95 percent within five years. Ensure that at least half of all Federally-employed healthcare providers adopt best practices for opioid prescribing within two years, with all of them doing so within five years. Leverage Federal funding opportunities related to opioids to ensure that States transition to a nationally interoperable Prescription Drug Monitoring Program network. CUT OFF THE SUPPLY OF ILLICIT DRUGS: President Trump’s OpioidInitiative will crack down on international and domestic illicit drug supply chains devastating American communities: Keep dangerous drugs out of the United States. Secure land borders, ports of entry, and water ways against illegal smuggling. Require advance electronic data for 90 percent of all international mail shipments (with goods) and consignment shipments within three years, in order for the Department of Homeland Security to flag high-risk shipments. Identify and inspect high-risk shipments leveraging advanced screening technologies and by using drug-detecting canines. Test and identify suspicious substances in high-risk international packages to quickly detect and remove known and emerging illicit drugs before they can cause harm. Engage with China and expand cooperation with Mexico to reduce supplies of heroin, other illicit opioids, and precursor chemicals. Advance the Department of Justice (DOJ) Prescription Interdiction and Litigation (PIL) Task Force to fight the prescription opioid crisis. The PIL Task Force will: Expand the DOJ Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit’s efforts to prosecute corrupt or criminally negligent doctors, pharmacies, and distributors. Aggressively deploy appropriate criminal and civil actions to holdopioid manufacturers accountable for any unlawful practices. Shut down illicit opioid sales conducted online and seize any related assets. Scale up internet enforcement efforts under DOJ’s new Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE) team. Strengthen criminal penalties for dealing and trafficking in fentanyl and other opioids: DOJ will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers, where appropriate under current law. The President also calls on Congress to pass legislation that reduces the threshold amount of drugs needed to invoke mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers who knowingly distribute certain illicit opioids that are lethal in trace amounts. HELP THOSE STRUGGLING WITH ADDICTION: President Trump’s OpioidInitiative will help those struggling with addiction through evidence-based treatment and recovery support services: Work to ensure first responders are supplied with naloxone, a lifesaving medication used to reverse overdoses. Leverage Federal funding opportunities to State and local jurisdictions to incentivize and improve nationwide overdose tracking systems that will help resources to be rapidly deployed to hard-hit areas. Expand access to evidence-based addiction treatment in every State, particularly Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction. Seek legislative changes to the law prohibiting Medicaid from reimbursing residential treatment at certain facilities with more than 16 beds. In the meantime, continue approving State Medicaid demonstration projects that waive these barriers to inpatient treatment. Provide on-demand, evidence-based addiction treatment to service members, veterans and their families eligible for healthcare through the Departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs. Leverage opportunities in the criminal justice system to identify and treat offenders struggling with addiction. Screen every Federal inmate for opioid addiction at intake. For those who screen positive and are approved for placement in residential reentry centers, facilitate naltrexone treatment and access to treatment prior to and while at residential reentry centers and facilitate connection to community treatment services as needed. Scale up support for State, Tribal, and local drug courts in order to provide offenders struggling with addiction access to evidence-based treatment as an alternative to or in conjunction with incarceration, or as a condition of supervised release.

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