�Թϲ�����

President Donald Trump overrode his own advisers when he promised to deliver an emergency declaration next week to combat the nation’s worsening opioid crisis. “That is a very, very big statement,” he said Monday. “It's a very important step. ... We're going to be doing it in the next week.” (Ehley and Dawsey and Karlin-Smith, 10/20)

There is little that resembles a current and all-encompassing drug policy in the United States. A national drug control plan issued by the Obama administration last year was written immediately prior to a White House transition, and many hoping for a newer framework are waiting for next month’s reveal of a new presidential commission’s final report on the opioid epidemic.  A new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, however, shows that many of the elements that could soon be codified as federal guidance are already creeping toward national standards in a patchwork fashion, apparent in the regulations imposed by a number of states for implementing Medicaid. (Facher, 10/19)