Blondell Reacts to President Trump’s Declaration that Opioid Crisis is Public Health Emergency

Richard D. Blondell, MD, professor of family medicine and vice chair of addiction medicine, commented on President Trump’s declaration that the opioid crisis is a public health emergency. He noted Trump said a lot of the right things in his speech although it was light on specifics. “The proof will be in the pudding,” he said. “It’s like a bunch of kids drowning in a river — we need to go upstream and find out why they’re drowning in the first place. We need to do something so that doctors stop prescribing people into addiction.”