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    When ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Actually Means the Opposite | As part of a ‘painful period’ of cuts, Trump and R.F.K Jr. plan on dismantling the agency that focuses on substance abuse.


    When ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Actually Means the Opposite | As part of a ‘painful period’ of cuts, Trump and R.F.K Jr. plan on dismantling the agency that focuses on substance abuse.

    Posted by towngrizzlytown

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    4 Comments

    1. towngrizzlytown on

      Extract:

      >ONE OF THE BIGGEST ADVANCES in public health from the last few years is one that you’ve probably never heard about—and one that now may be in jeopardy thanks to the Trump administration.

      >I’m talking about a [dramatic turnaround](https://www.npr.org/2025/03/07/nx-s1-5295618/fentanyl-overdose-drugs) in America’s opioid crisis, the epidemic that began in the late 1990s with an explosion in the use of addictive prescription painkillers, and then got even worse with a surge in the use of heroin and its synthetic alternative, fentanyl. The effects have left families, communities, and in some cases whole regions of the country reeling, and more than [700,000](https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/about/understanding-the-opioid-overdose-epidemic.html) Americans dead from overdoses.

      >But recently the death rate from overdoses has started to fall. In the latest twelve-month period that the official [data](https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/2025-cdc-reports-decline-in-us-drug-overdose-deaths.html) captures, the decline has been particularly steep: 24 percent…

      >Now all of that is going to change. The [plan](https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/hhs-restructuring-doge-fact-sheet.html) Kennedy announced will eliminate SAMHSA as a separate entity, folding it and several other smaller agencies into a new division called the “Administration for a Healthy America.” It will also cut the number of HHS regional offices in half, leaving just five.

    2. Ramses_L_Smuckles on

      The measles speed run (polio next) may overtake even that trend. Or we could see for example cancer mortality improvements slow as we lose talented researchers. Or maybe the loss of serious environmental policy will bring back Minamata disease.

    4. Steamed_Clams_ on

      “Make America Healthy Again” with a figurehead who is an obese junk food addict.

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