The commissioners did not specify how much money should be spent to carry out their suggestions, but they pressed Congress to “appropriate sufficient funds” in response to Mr. Trump’s declaration last week of a public health emergency.
The 56 recommendations — which covered opioid prescribing practices, prevention, treatment, law enforcement tactics and funding mechanisms — did not so much advocate a new approach as expanding strategies already being used.
Reaction from treatment advocates was mixed, with many expressing frustration that the commission had not called for a specific level of funding. Chuck Ingoglia, a senior vice president at the National Council for Behavioral Health, which represents treatment providers, said that his group agreed with many of the recommendations, but that the report “starves the country for the real resources it needs to save American lives.”
Although the commission did not put a dollar amount on its recommendations, it had specific ideas for how federal money should be funneled to states. Its top recommendation was to streamline “fragmented” federal funds for addiction prevention and treatment into block grants that would require each state to file only a single application instead of seeking grants from dozens of programs scattered across various agencies.
