Opioid Crisis Awareness Week, 2019

Proclamation 9923 of September 6, 2019

Opioid Crisis Awareness Week, 2019

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The opioid crisis has devastated communities across
America and has stolen precious lives, leaving families
with an unfillable void. During Opioid Crisis Awareness
Week, we reaffirm our commitment to ending this
terrible crisis and eradicating drug addiction from our
society.

On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid
overdose. Drug overdose is the leading cause of
accidental death in the United States, and opioids are
the most common drug used in cases of drug overdose.
Since the start of the 21st century, our Nation has
lost nearly the same number of lives to the opioid
crisis as we lost in World War II.

My Administration is taking aggressive action to
address this nationwide public health emergency. In
2018, our High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program
disrupted or dismantled nearly 3,000 drug trafficking
organizations. During that operation, the Department of
Justice seized enough fentanyl to kill more than
100,000 Americans out of our communities. Additionally,
I released my Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and
Reduce Drug Supply and Demand, which is preventing
over-prescription, reducing the demand for drugs
through education and awareness, and cutting off the
flow of illicit drugs across our borders and into
American communities. As a part of this Initiative, we
are working with State and local partners to expand
access to evidence-based addiction treatment in every
part of our country. Further, I signed the bipartisan
H.R. 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that
Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for
Patients and Communities Act, the largest legislative
effort ever to address a single drug crisis in our
Nation's history. This law is expanding access to
evidence-based treatment, protecting our communities
from illicit drugs, investing more in sustained
recovery, bringing those in treatment and recovery back
into the workforce, and raising awareness of the
dangers of illicitly imported synthetic opioids.

My Administration is determined to use every resource
at our disposal to release the grip of addiction
plaguing our citizens. This month, the Department of
Health and Human Services announced $1.8 billion in new
grant money to fight the opioid epidemic. These funds
will be delivered to communities where help is most
needed and will support State and local governments in
obtaining high-quality, comprehensive data to save
lives. Moreover, in order to break the cycle of
addiction, we must prevent young Americans from ever
trying drugs in the first place. To help succeed in
this important cause, we launched a nationwide public
ad campaign to educate young people about the dangers
of misusing prescription opioids. This campaign has
already reached 58 percent of young adults. These
critical actions, combined with the record $6 billion
in new funding I secured during my first 2 years in
office to fuel the response to this crisis, are leading
to results. Provisional data shows we are making
progress, with overdose deaths declining for the first
time since 1990.

It is crucial to remove the societal stigma surrounding
those suffering from opioid use and other substance use
disorders by approaching addiction as a treatable
disease. We need to make it clear that treatment is
available

and effective, and that recovery is possible. Already,
we are seeing encouraging progress toward ensuring that
those struggling with addiction receive evidence-based
treatment in order to begin the road to recovery. In
2018, 250,000 more Americans received medication-
assisted treatment than in 2016. Through The Crisis
Next Door platform, which my Administration launched
last year, those who have been affected by the opioid
crisis can help encourage other people struggling with
addiction to seek the care they need.

As we observe Opioid Crisis Awareness Week, we
strengthen our resolve to win the fight against the
opioid epidemic. Together, we will ensure that all
Americans have the opportunity for a brighter future,
free from the oppression of drug addiction.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim September 8 through
September 14, 2019, as Opioid Crisis Awareness Week. I
call upon my fellow Americans to observe this week with
appropriate programs, ceremonies, religious services,
and other activities that raise awareness about the
prescription opioid and heroin epidemic and to consider
concrete follow-up activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand nineteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
fourth.