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Trump promised to reduce fentanyl deaths; he's trying to cut Narcan funding instead [1]
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Date: 2025-05-04
In 2018, Rick Wilson coined the infamous hashtag #ETTD, "Everything Trump Touches Dies." I would add, "But not before he lies about it." Take the miserable man's boast that he would reduce opioid deaths in the US. He was so rhetorically committed to the idea that, in the first year of his first term, he declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. And said:
"We are currently dealing with the worst drug crisis in American history. It's just been so long in the making. Addressing it will require all of our effort. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic."
Unsurprisingly, opioid deaths went up. Then, during Biden's term, opioid deaths declined (in 2024 by 24%). But instead of learning what lessons he could, Trump stuck to what had failed before.
On April 1, 2025, the administration released a STATEMENT OF DRUG POLICY PRIORITIES . In it, the White House outlined its plan for:
"decisive action to address the scourge of illicit drug use that plagues our Nation and continues to account for the loss of thousands of American lives."
The priorities start with a muscular plan to prevent illicit drugs from coming to America. This chest-beating exercise demands foreigners shape up and fly right. It also designates drug dealers as terrorists, distributes guns and trucks to uniformed agents, and commits to finishing the border wall. In short, it promises to spend billions in yet another pointless attempt to reduce drug deaths by tackling drug supply.
Trying to stem the flow of illegal substances didn't reduce drug use for Nixon, Reagan, or any other President. It didn't work in Trump's first term. It didn't work during Prohibition. But it appeals to Republican Presidents because reducing drug deaths is not the point of the exercise.
Don't let the happy talk about saving American lives fool you. "Securing the Border" is like the "War on Drugs." These are not policies to reduce the use of narcotics. They are marketing slogans to sell a federal jobs program. A program that also enriches the companies that supply the guns, vehicles, uniforms, comms, building materials, construction services, technology, etc., that this billion-dollar boondoggle demands.
The Homeland Security budget is little different from the Pentagon budget in that regard — and the taxpayer forks over just south of $1 trillion annually to fund the two of them currently. And Trump wants to increase both. Where’s DOGE when you need it?
But back to the administration's Drug Policy Priorities. The April 1 release date was well chosen. The Bozo in the Oval is working on the assumption that many Americans are foolish enough to buy into their bait-and-switch cynicism. Why not? It got Trump elected in 2024.
However, if the disinterested observer wants to know what the administration's true priorities are, they should ignore what MAGAs say they will do — and instead focus on what they fund.
Bearing that in mind, consider what UC Riverside reported about the gap between anti-drug rhetoric and funding:
The Trump administration has proposed terminating a $56 million annual grant program that distributes naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, and trains emergency responders to administer the drug in the case of opioid overdoses. It's believed to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
The Washington Post also addressed Trump's empty promises. In a piece titled, " Trump administration praised 'life-saving' naloxone, then proposed cuts ," the paper writes:
A preliminary Health and Human Services budget document dated April 10 and obtained by The Washington Post shows the department planned to cut an unspecified amount of money for the naloxone initiatives, part of a larger effort to slash one-third of HHS spending on federal health programs. Only nine days earlier, the White House had blamed the opioid crisis and other drugs for a "staggering loss of life" and touted its efforts to fight it — in part by expanding access to "life-saving" naloxone and other opioid overdose reversal medications. It flowed naturally from President Donald Trump's first-term declaration that opioids were a national emergency he intended to fight — an effort President Joe Biden expanded to include making Narcan available without a prescription.
As for Fox News, searches of its website for "Naxolone" and "Narcan" produce no mention of Trump's current plan to increase drug overdoses.
The Department of Homeland Security's 2025 budget is $107.9B. The Narcan program equals less than 1/10 of 1% of that. And the ROI is remarkable. As I mentioned at the top, drug OD deaths in 2024 had declined by 27,000 (24%). Narcan played a significant role . Removing it from the mix will lead to more deaths.
Not that Trump gives a shit.
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[1] Url:
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