Nov 10, 2017 2 min read

An editorial opinion from The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette:

So the opioid crisis is a public health emergency now. What does that mean?

When a governor declares a state of emergency, it’s not just political theater. It means emergency crews can work around the clock. It has implications for qualifying for federal help.

What does President Trump’s recent announcement do for regions like West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, where overdose deaths are killing a generation and running emergency responders off their feet?

It lets states use some federal money they already have and maybe take money from other important public health needs, if you call that a solution.

Also, it lets states tap the federal government’s Public Health Emergency Fund.

All $57,000 of it, says Forbes magazine contributor Bruce Y. Lee.

That’s all there is in the Public Health Emergency Fund, because Congress stopped putting money in it in 1993.

It’s entirely possible that Trump is as horrified as every person who discovers the devastating extent of prescription and illegal drug dependence and death around the country. It is possible that the announcement is a first step of a slow and not particularly adept administration to deal with a real problem. Certainly first lady Melania Trump’s recent visit to Huntington, W.Va., is a signal of some kind of concern.

But if anything, so far, the administration and its enablers have been too eager to exacerbate suffering and death by cutting or disrupting the very things communities depend on to do as well as they are – health care funding, for example.

So, there was a big announcement. Now, where is the substance?

Of course, Congress doesn’t need the president to recognize a public health emergency among its own constituents. Congress decides how much money is raised and how it is spent. If members of Congress wanted to give Ohio Valley communities or anyone else the resources needed to get ahead of and begin to shrink this problem, they could do it in a day.