Last week, several members of the Trump administration spoke at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit, a major addiction and drug policy conference.

The main point: Top officials from both parties often speak at the conference and announce new policies or initiatives related to substance use/addiction. This year, the officials largely steered clear of any major policy discussion, including on the major cuts to grants and agencies and potential cuts to Medicaid.

The details:

• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy talked about his personal experience with addiction and 12-step recovery. He stressed the importance of medications for opioid use disorder and naloxone as among the “nuts and bolts” of the drug crisis response. But he mostly focused on faith– and service-based frameworks to treat addiction and the importance of community connection. He did not mention specific policy changes. He said HHS has $4 billion to put toward addressing the crisis, including through prevention, education, and treatment, but that “throwing money at it alone is not going to work.” He was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, and several attendees said his remarks failed to address uncertainty around his actions to cut addiction funding and reorganize HHS.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Bhattacharya also gave remarks light on policy specifics. He said that while there are many underlying factors for substance use and the rise in overdose deaths, “probably the most important of all, from my view, is the social isolation, depression, and anxiety caused by the pandemic and by our response to the pandemic.” He said addressing the drug crisis was central to “making America healthy again.” He also gave a ringing endorsement to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Volkow, highlighting her work on the effect of drugs on the brain and how it moved addiction from being seen as a moral failing to a biological problem.