Presidential Documents

50305 

Federal Register 

Vol. 82, No. 209 

Tuesday, October 31, 2017 

Title 3— 

The President 

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 


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50306 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 209 / Tuesday, October 31, 2017 / Presidential Documents 

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. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, 

Washington, October 26, 2017 

[FR Doc. 2017–23787 

Filed 10–30–17; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 4150–42–P 


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