President Donald Trump says next week he's going to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency.
The President told reporters that it's a massive problem and it's something he absolutely wants to get right. It's a follow up to a promise Trump made in August. We really need for this to happen. This is affecting, one way or another, just about every family in the United States.
24/7 Metro-News reports that White House advisers say the declaration will be a boost in helping to fight the epidemic, which has killed more than half a million people since 2000. The last declared public health emergency was during a flu outbreak in 2009.