President Trump: Opioid Crisis a "National Emergency"

President Donald Trump declared America’s opioid epidemic a “national emergency” Thursday, following the advice of his opioid commission after declining to do so two days prior.

“The opioids crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially, right now, it is an emergency,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on the opioid crisis.”

NBC News reported that this official designation frees the executive branch to direct funds towards opioid treatment, such as expanding treatment facilities, and allows the administration to waive certain federal rules restricting how funds to fight opioid addiction can be used.

Trump made the declaration seemingly on the spur of the moment, in response to a question from a pool reporter about why he hadn’t made a declaration yet.

“You know when I was growing up they had the LSD and they had certain generations of drugs,” Trump said. “There’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years. And I have to say this in all fairness, this is a worldwide problem, not just a United States problem. This is happening worldwide. But this is a national emergency and we are drawing documents now to so attest.”