President Donald Trump’s Oct. 26 announcement that the opioid epidemic is a “public health emergency” rather than a “national emergency” goes against the understanding of most authorities, said an expert on substance use disorder treatment at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Recall that the commission President Trump formed, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, indicated that the opioid epidemic was the equivalent of the September 11 attacks happening every three weeks,” said David Patterson Silver Wolf, associate professor at the Brown School and director of the Community-Academic Partnership on Addiction.