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Secretary Azar Remarks on One-Year Anniversary of SUPPORT Act

Alex M. Azar II
Roundtable with First Lady Trump, Members of Congress, and other government officials
October 23, 2019
U.S. Capitol

The SUPPORT Act advances HHS’s work across all five elements of our opioid strategy: better treatment, prevention, and recovery services; better data on the epidemic; better pain management, better targeting of overdose-reversing drugs, and better research on pain and addiction.

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you all for joining us here today.

Thank you in particular to the First Lady, for working to bring more attention to the opioid crisis and its impact on our families and our children in particular.

Thank you, Kellyanne, for your leadership across the administration, and thank you, Director Carroll for your hard work at ONDCP.

We’re celebrating an important milestone: the one-year anniversary of the SUPPORT Act, the largest single piece of legislation to tackle addiction in American history.

So thank you to every member here who voted for it—that would be all of you—and to everyone who helped contribute their ideas to this important legislation—I believe that would be all of you as well.

Today, we’re also assessing the progress that has been made as a result of that work—and thinking about what we can do to sustain and accelerate that progress.

We’ve seen a lot of progress under President Trump.

The total amount of opioids being prescribed is down 31 percent since he took office.

The number of Americans on medication-assisted treatment has risen 38 percent from 2016 through 2019, reaching 1.27 million Americans.

We’ve increased the amount of naloxone being prescribed by 378 percent since the President took office.

Provisional counts of drug overdose deaths dropped 5 percent from 2017 to 2018, the first drop in more than two decades.

These results are thanks to the hard work of communities all across America—but they would not be possible without the strong support President Trump and Congress have provided.

The SUPPORT Act advances HHS’s work across all five elements of our opioid strategy: better treatment, prevention, and recovery services; better data on the epidemic; better pain management, better targeting of overdose-reversing drugs, and better research on pain and addiction.

Content created by Speechwriting and Editorial Division 
Content last reviewed on December 2, 2019