President Trump’s nominee for “drug czar” and former deputy chief of staff Jim Carroll spoke in New Haven about the outbreak of nearly 100 synthetic cannabinoid overdoses that struck the city last week. Carroll is an attorney and currently at the helm of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. At a Monday press conference, Carroll praised the coordinated effort of first responders and emergency, medical and police crews who dealt with the steady stream of K2 overdose cases. He also expressed the importance of following through on Trump’s plan to curb drug addiction.
What Is President Trump’s Drug Czar Doing To Combat Drug Overdoses?
While President Trump has been in office, the unprecedented drug overdose crisis facing the United States has only gotten worse. In 2017, early statistics show there were more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths. But despite declaring opioid abuse a public health emergency that year, a stop-gap measure criticized sharply by many drug policy experts, the White House has accomplished little in its fight to end the epidemic.
Before Trump appointed Jim Carroll to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in March, a 24-year-old campaign staffer with no applicable qualifications was the top political appointee in the office. The Trump administration has also hit the drug control policy office with steep budget cuts.
Carroll, for his part, has no known public health experience. But White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointed to Carroll’s legal experience dealing with drug-related cases and people impacted by drug abuse. But Carroll wasn’t Trump’s first pick for the post. Instead, Trump had wanted to appoint Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pennsylvania). But after it emerged that Marino had endorsed a law that blocked federal programs to