The 2024 Presidential Candidates and The Opioid Epidemic
Note: For consistency and to avoid the perception of promoting one candidate over the other, we will always list the candidates alphabetically by last name. Therefore, Vice President Harris will always be listed before former President Trump.
With the 2024 U.S. Presidential election fast approaching, it is important for voters to understand how each candidate’s administration may approach addressing the opioid epidemic in the next four years. To that end, this article will use campaign materials, candidate statements, and past policy positions to compare Vice President Kamala Harris’s and former President Donald Trump’s view on how to handle the current opioid epidemic.
2024 Campaign Websites
The Harris and Trump campaign sites both promote the policy of increasing border security operations to reduce the supply of illicit drugs, particularly fentanyl and its precursors, moving across the U.S. - Mexico border. The Harris campaign calls for the signing of the “bipartisan border bill” which refers to legislation found in H.R. 815 that ultimately did not advance with the rest of the larger appropriations bill. The Trump campaign materials call for increased border security operations, tougher immigration policies, and the use of the U.S. military to target foreign drug cartels.
Opioid or Drug Related Statements Found on the Candidate’s Campaign Sites
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Kamala Harris
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Donald Trump
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- [Kamala Harris would] “sign the bipartisan border bill that will fund detection technology to intercept even more illicit drugs and she’ll keep fighting to end the opioid epidemic”
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- [The Trump Administration would] “stop the open-border policies that have opened the floodgates to a tidal wave of illegal Aliens, deadly drugs, and Migrant Crime”
- “We [the Trump Administration] will also invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of Illegal Alien gang violence once and for all”
- [Donald Trump would] “Mobilize Military personnel and assets as necessary to crack down hard on the cartels that traffic drugs and people into our Country”
- [The Trump Administration would] stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders.
- [Donald Trump would] deploy the U.S. Navy to impose a full Fentanyl Blockade on the waters of our Region—boarding and inspecting ships to look for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors.
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Presidential Debates
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Kamala Harris
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Donald Trump
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- Harris was asked about immigration and border security under the Biden administration
- Harris responded “The United States Congress…came up with a border security bill which I supported. And that bill would have put 1,500 more border agents on the border to help those folks who are working there right now over time trying to do their job. It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States.”
- Harris accused former President Trump of pressuring Republican lawmakers to block the passage of the border security bill mentioned above.
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- Trump was given the opportunity to respond to Harris’s broader statement on immigration and border security but did not mention fentanyl or the opioid epidemic.
- When responding to a question later in the debate about immigration policy, Trump stated “They [the Biden Administration] allowed people to come in, drug dealers, to come into our country, and they're now in the United States”
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President Joe Biden, not Vice President Harris, was the Democratic nominee during this debate against former President Trump. Harris was therefore obviously unable to address any questions but former President Trump was asked about how his administration would help Americans struggling with drug addiction.
Trump responded:
“We’re doing very well at addiction until the COVID came along….And then we had to get tough. And it was – the drugs pouring across the border, we’re – it started to increase. We got great equipment… And we had – we were getting very low numbers. Very, very low numbers…But the numbers [under the Biden Administration] of – the amount of drugs and human trafficking in women coming across our border…But the number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had by far.”
Policy Successes in Office
This section notes a few examples of drug and opioid related policy initiatives achieved by each administration however, is not a comprehensive list.
Actions Taken by Each Presidential Administration to Address the Opioid Epidemic
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Vice President Kamala Harris as part of the Biden Administration 2020 - 2024
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President Donald Trump 2016 - 2020
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- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved naloxone nasal spray, a medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, for over-the-counter (OTC), nonprescription, use.
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $1.5 billion to the State Opioid Response (SOR) and Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) Technical Assistance grants program to fund evidence-based prevention initiatives.
- The Treasury Department sanctioned Chinese individuals and entities tied to the production of synthetic drugs and the precursor chemicals used to make those drugs. The Administration also renewed bilateral counternarcotics cooperation with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
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- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency for the first time giving federal agencies additional authorities to address the epidemic. The declaration has been renewed continuously since the initial declaration in 2017.
- President Trump signed the 2018 SUPPORT Act which, among many other things, increased federal funding for drug treatment and required state Medicaid to cover FDA approved medications for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).
- The Trump Administration worked with PRC officials to designate fentanyl, its analogs and some precursor chemicals as controlled substances by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
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Criticism
While each administration directed federal resources towards ending the opioid epidemic, neither one was able to reverse the rising overdose rate during their tenure. During the Biden-Harris Administration drug overdose deaths rose from 72,214 in January 2020 to an estimated 98,820 in May 2024 (the most recent available data) a 36.8% increase. Similarly, during the Trump Administration, drug overdose deaths rose from 52,902 in January 2016 to 71,130 in December 2019 a 34.5% increase.1
Recent data shows a significant drop in fatal and non fatal drug overdoses; more on that can be found here.
2024 and Beyond
The Biden-Harris and Trump Administrations each achieved some policy successes during their tenures, yet drug overdoses continued to rise during each term. In this election cycle, both candidates are almost exclusively pointing to increased border security operations as the answer to the opioid epidemic while neglecting other important policy options. Border seizures of illicit drugs are an important piece of the puzzle as an estimated 90% of fentanyl that makes it into the United States is smuggled across the U.S. - Mexico border through legal ports of entry.2 However, targeting the supply of illicit opioids entering the U.S. is simply not enough. The next President of the United States must take a multifaceted approach to ending the opioid epidemic by enacting new policies across multiple sectors including public health, criminal justice, international relations, and border security.
Resilient Lifescience is committed to serving those afflicted by OUD regardless of which political party is in power. However, we believe that each candidate could commit to more concrete plans to fight the opioid epidemic beyond increased border security operations. Among other public policy initiatives, Resilient Lifescience supports:
- Increased funding to agencies such as the NIH and CDC that award SBIR grants to organizations such as Resilient Lifescience working to end the opioid epidemic
- Efforts to continue supporting and expanding evidence based treatment options, including medication assisted treatment (MAT), to those suffering from OUD.
- Supporting continued oversight and transparency for use of Opioid Settlement Funds, to ensure the funds are properly directed toward efforts to combat the opioid epidemic
Sources
- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexican-drug-cartels-behind-america-fentanyl-crisis-60-minutes/
