[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 209 (Tuesday, October 31, 2017)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50305-50306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-23787]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 82 , No. 209 / Tuesday, October 31, 2017 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 50305]]

                Memorandum of October 26, 2017

                
 Combatting the National Drug Demand and Opioid 
                Crisis

                Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and 
                Agencies

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, it is hereby directed as follows:

                Section 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of the United 
                States to use all lawful means to combat the drug 
                demand and opioid crisis currently afflicting our 
                country. Individuals, families, and communities across 
                the United States continue to be devastated by an 
                unprecedented epidemic of drug abuse and overdose, 
                including of prescription opioids, heroin, and illicit 
                synthetic opioids. Last year, we lost at least 64,000 
                of our fellow Americans to drug overdose, primarily 
                from opioids. This is an increase of approximately 
                12,000 people over the year before and more than ever 
                recorded in United States history. Drug overdoses now 
                kill more Americans than motor vehicle crashes or gun-
                related incidents, and more than 300,000 Americans have 
                died of an opioid overdose since 2000. Further, more 
                than 2.1 million of our fellow citizens are addicted to 
                opioids, and in 2014 more than 1,500 people were 
                treated each day in emergency departments for opioid-
                related emergencies.

                This crisis has devastated our communities. It has been 
                particularly harmful for children affected by their 
                parents' drug abuse. The number of infants born drug-
                dependent increased by nearly 500 percent from 2000 to 
                2012. The number of children being placed into foster 
                care due, at least in part, to parental drug abuse is 
                increasing, and accounted for almost a third of all 
                child removals in Fiscal Year 2015. Serious drug users 
                are also more likely to be arrested for crimes such as 
                burglary, robbery, and handling stolen goods. Moreover, 
                the drug trafficking that supplies illegal drugs to our 
                country is associated with other illegal activities, 
                including murder and other violent crimes. All of this 
                devastates lives and harms communities in both the 
                United States and foreign countries involved in the 
                illegal drug supply chain. Federal, State, and local 
                governments; law enforcement; first responders; the 
                medical, public health, and substance abuse treatment 
                community; and faith-based and community organizations 
                are working tirelessly and have even expanded their 
                efforts to combat the drug demand and opioid crisis.

                Three factors are driving the opioid aspect of this 
                crisis in particular. First, since the 1990s, there has 
                been a dramatic rise in opioid pain medication 
                prescriptions. Second, heroin from Mexico has flooded 
                the country. Third, the illicit manufacture and illegal 
                importation of fentanyl--an extremely deadly synthetic 
                opioid--and its analogues and related compounds have 
                proliferated. Fentanyl is currently manufactured almost 
                exclusively in China, and it is either shipped into the 
                United States or smuggled across the southern border by 
                drug traffickers. Between 2013 and 2016, the amount of 
                fentanyl seized by Customs and Border Protection at the 
                border increased more than 200 times over. Dealers are 
                increasingly lacing fentanyl into other drugs and 
                pressing it into counterfeit opioid pills. Because 
                fentanyl is lethal in even miniscule doses, this is an 
                extremely deadly tactic, as it too often causes users 
                to ingest a fatal amount unknowingly.

                Sec. 2. Agency Action. The Secretary of Health and 
                Human Services shall, consistent with section 319 of 
                the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 247d, consider 
                declaring that the drug demand and opioid crisis 
                described

[[Page 50306]]

                in section 1 of this memorandum constitutes a Public 
                Health Emergency. Additionally, the heads of executive 
                departments and agencies, as appropriate and consistent 
                with law, shall exercise all appropriate emergency 
                authorities, as well as other relevant authorities, to 
                reduce the number of deaths and minimize the 
                devastation the drug demand and opioid crisis inflicts 
                upon American communities.

                Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this 
                memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise 
                affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent 
                with applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.
                    (c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does 
                not, create any right or benefit, substantive or 
                procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any 
                party against the United States, its departments, 
                agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or 
                agents, or any other person.
                    (d) The Secretary of Health and Human Services is 
                hereby authorized and directed to publish this 
                memorandum in the Federal Register.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, October 26, 2017

[FR Doc. 2017-23787
Filed 10-30-17; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4150-42-P