Opioid deaths quadrupled since 1999: Trump

President Trump scheduled a major briefing on the epidemic of opiod drug use and said his administration will fight it and 'will win'.

President Trump scheduled a major briefing on the epidemic of opiod drug use and said his administration will fight it and 'will win'. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed an unrelenting assault on the epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States, a health crisis that authorities say kills more than 100 Americans daily.

"Opioid overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled since 1999, it is a problem the likes of which we have not seen," Trump said at a news conference.

In the midst of a two-week getaway at his golf club in New Jersey, Trump met with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to discuss the matter. Trump frequently mentioned the opioid crisis as a presidential candidate, but has given it less public attention since taking office in January.

A commission created by Trump to study the matter urged him last week to declare a national emergency to address what it called a crisis involving the epidemic use of opioids, framing its death toll in the context of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The commission, headed by Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, recommended a series of steps Trump could take on his own without Congress. It called for waiving a federal rule that restricts the number of people who can receive residential addiction treatment under the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and disabled.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in more than 33,000 U.S. deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data is available, and estimates show the death rate has continued rising. Price has called the epidemic one of his agency's top priorities.

The commission cited government data showing that since 1999 U.S. opioid overdoses have quadrupled, adding that nearly two thirds of U.S. drug overdoses were linked to opioids such as heroin and the powerful painkillers Percocet, OxyContin and fentanyl.