White House Releases First National Drug Control Strategy

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) outlined Thursday its top priorities for combating illicit drug abuse and distribution in the United States in the office’s first National Drug Control Strategy under President Donald J. Trump.

The ONDCP's national strategy is in line with work conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services and Congress, and it offers recommendations similar to the last version released in 2016 under former President Barack Obama. It focuses primarily on treatment, prevention and stopping the flow of illegal drugs.

The strategy’s top measure of effectiveness is to significantly reduce the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses within five years. The office also laid out goals to reduce national opioid prescription fills by a third, improve access to evidence-based addiction treatment and reduce the availability of illicit drugs within the U.S.

According to the strategy, the administration will also be increasing public awareness on "rescue breathing in the event of an opioid overdose in those cases when naloxone is not available as a critical live-saving measure." The report states that the Trump administration will also be building on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribing guidelines and "will build on existing research regarding barriers to nation-wide (prescription drug monitoring programs) implementation and employ various strategies to support PDMP integration and data sharing" in the coming years.

ASA has collaborated with ONDCP in the past. In 2013, ASA and ONDCP worked together to develop an Opioid Overdose Resuscitation card, which provides easy-to-understand lifesaving techniques to help friends and family save someone suspected of an opioid overdose. When the card was released, ONDCP sent a standalone-email-update asking individuals to download the card. Since then, the card has been shared with partner organizations and government leaders, as wells as distributed by physicians and patient advocates. It is available for download on the ASA website and has also been distributed to 330,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police.

ASA has long-supported increased and sustained funding for prescription drug monitoring programs and interoperability across states.