White House Drug Strategy Calls for Naloxone and Treatment Despite Recent Funding Limits

The White House released its annual National Drug Control Strategy on May 4, which calls for expanded access to the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, medication-assisted treatment and test strips used to detect fentanyl or other drug supply adulterants.

The document appears at odds with several recent administration actions on drug policy. It was released days after officials issued new restrictions on using federal dollars to distribute test strips and warned against the use of medication-assisted treatment unless accompanied by other services such as counseling.

The strategy document is the first released since the Senate confirmed a former Fox News correspondent to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in January. It places heavy emphasis on border security measures including construction of a wall along the Mexican border, deporting drug traffickers and targeting of alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

The document does not mention syringe exchange programs, which are viewed as a tool for preventing infectious disease from injection drug use and connecting people to medical treatment. It also avoids the phrase "harm reduction," which refers to strategies aimed at reducing death and disease among people who use drugs without requiring abstinence.

The strategy states that the administration has redirected resources toward transitional housing and treatment-focused programs while removing the enabling environment that allowed open-air drug use in cities. It has cancelled billions in funding from the agency and then briefly cancelled but soon reinstated roughly $2 billion more.