Trump promises to declare national emergency as opioid use in US kills 142 people each day

THE shocking scale of the US opioid epidemic is out, with nearly 150 deaths a day and Mr Trump is set to declare a national emergency.

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has promised to officially declare a national emergency over opioid use, after a White House Commission warned of prescription drugs creating a “September 11th every three weeks”.

The President also said he would be “looking into” Tom Marino — a Republican he had previously nominated as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. It comes after a 60 Minutes/Washington Post report claimed Marino was “chief advocate” of a 2016 law that favoured pharmaceutical companies and crippled US government agencies in their ability to fight drugs.

“The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market,” the exclusive report claimed.

“The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns.”

On Monday, Mr Trump put Marino on notice, saying: “If I think it’s one per cent negative to doing what we want to do, I will make a change.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called putting Marino in charge of drug policy being akin to “putting the wolf in charge of the henhouse.”

“The American people deserve someone totally committed to fighting the opioid crisis, not someone who has laboured on behalf of the drug industry,” he said.

Victor, a heroin user who has been on the street for five years, pauses in a South Bronx neighbourhood which has the highest rate of heroin-involved overdose deaths in the city on October 7, 2017. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

Brook, pictured, a heroin user from the South Bronx. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

‘SEPTEMBER 11TH EVERY THREE WEEKS’

It comes amid a national debate over how to deal with the opioid crisis that has gripped the US.

In March, Mr Trump convened a White House commission to investigate the situation, vowing to “take action to keep drugs from pouring into our country”.

“This is an epidemic that knows no boundaries and shows no mercy, and we will show great compassion and resolve as we work together on this important issue,” he said at the time.

In July, the Commission issued a preliminary report calling on Mr Trump to declare a national emergency over prescription drug use.

“With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” the report said.

“After September 11th, our President and our nation banded together to use every tool at our disposal to prevent any further American deaths. Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life.

“It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will.”

US President Donald Trump said he would make a decision on the national emergency ‘next week’. Picture: AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB

Fentanyl is difficult to detect at US borders and a White House Commission said it should be considered a national security issue. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP.

More than 65,000 people died in the US of drug overdoses in the year to March 2017, up nearly 19 per cent on the year before.

The Commission also warned that more than 560,000 have died between 1999 and 2015 — the equivalent to the state of Atlanta. Nearly two-thirds of those were linked to opioids like Percocet, OxyContin, Fentanyl and heroin. The amount available on prescription is enough to medicate the entire country around the clock for three weeks.

The subject was the recent focus of Louis Theroux’s latest documentary series Dark States, which showed a number of Fentanyl users in Virginia who had begun their addiction by taking prescription drugs. Many turned to street drugs like heroin once their prescription ended.

The Commission wants Trump to increase treatment capacity, mandate education and fund the DEA and FBI to develop better border detection for Fentanyl.

“We are miserably losing this fight to prevent Fentanyl from entering our country and killing our citizens. We are losing this fight predominately through China. This must become a top tier diplomatic issue with the Chinese; American lives are at stake and it threatens our national security,” it said.

Marino’s office declined to comment following the Washington Post/60 Minutes report. But Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor, said allegations he or Marino “conspired” with drug companies were “utterly ridiculous”.

Hatch said he was “no patsy” of the drug industry and agencies could have tried to obstruct the bill at any time.

“Let’s not pretend that DEA, both houses of Congress and the Obama White House all somehow wilted under Representative Marino’s nefarious influences,” he said.