did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyy
Professor of addiction policy at Georgetown University. Former Biden and Obama Administration official.
substack.com/@reginalabelle?r=h9gu
- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyRegina LaBelle in @sciencepolitics.bsky.social: "The U.S. cannot stop rogue actors by itself when transnational criminal organizations operate w/o regard to borders & across numerous criminal enterprises...Countering TCOs relies upon international cooperation." sciencepolitics.org/2026/02/02/t...
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- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyLast week, the Trump administration cancelled >$2B in mental health + addiction treatment funds. Only massive, rapid pushback caused them to reverse the decision. But these programs remain at risk. So Grant Witness is now tracking SAMHSA grants. What found so far: grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0...
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- Reversal by White House of addiction and mental health grant cuts. rollcall.com/2026/01/14/h...
- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyThe military removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on US drug charges comes after Trump has freed other figures connected to narcotics trafficking. n.pr/4skk4yB
- Venezuela is on the US list of major drug trafficking countries. But it’s on this list because it’s a transit country for cocaine trafficking - not a fentanyl producer. See the State Department 2025 report www.state.gov/wp-content/u...
- The children left behind. The Opioid Crisis Never Ended. It Was Inherited by the Children. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- More on fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction by David Ovalle of @washingtonpost.com with a range of commentaries from parents looking for solutions to doctors and academics. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- In light of the President’s Executive Order today on fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, I’m reupping the piece we wrote about the issue - oneill.law.georgetown.edu/wp-content/u... The overdose epidemic demands serious responses - this isn’t one.
- Blowing up boats won’t address the larger issue of money laundering that fuels transnational crime - good piece in The NYTimes about the ease of using stable coins for money laundering amidst lax regulation www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
- Now that the Purdue bankruptcy is over, the federal government will receive a $225 million payment as a result of DOJ’s 2018 settlement w/the company. That $ should not go to the general treasury but should be dedicated for treatment and other health services. apnews.com/article/purd...
- This is the same Administration that pardoned the Silk Road founder, an online dark web drug trafficking site linked to 6 deaths. This is performative, likely illegal, & will do little to stop trafficking. U.S. kills 3 in strike on alleged drug boat from Venezuela, Trump says wapo.st/4nCzbQN
- While walking away from anti-money laundering efforts, the Administration is relying more on military tactics in its counter narcotics efforts - a short sighted strategy. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
- The vast majority of firearms seized in Mexico that can be traced, originate from the US www.nytimes.com/video/world/... www.nytimes.com/video/world/...
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- New commentary out from @brookings.edu - always great to collaborate with @holtgrave-health.bsky.social Progress under threat: The future of overdose prevention in the United States www.brookings.edu/articles/pro...
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- Important perspective from Brandon del Pozo about the need for law enforcement to show their faces and identify themselves in a democratic society. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
- “He was dirty,” Mr. Musto said of the Salvadoran president. “He was corrupt. And now he’s sitting next to the president in the Oval Office and he’s got prime access to the leader of the free world.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u...
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- Excellent questioning by Congressman Marc Veasey on HHS’s proposed cuts to SAMHSA. The proposed HHS budget calls for a $500M cut to grant funding for mental health & substance use, cuts that will devastate the nation’s addiction response. youtu.be/jR4VVrIvIOQ?...
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- Looking forward to this discussion about the Trump Administration’s approach to drug policy on July 8th. Register here for the virtual event: medicine.yale.edu/event/addict...
- By cutting Medicaid and SAMHSA, the “backbone” of the nation’s public health response to mental health & addiction is in danger. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- Latest Substack open.substack.com/pub/reginala...
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- The settlement with Purdue includes $850M to settle claims brought by victims. It also doesn’t include a waiver of future claims a/g the Sacklers.
- How a Generation’s Struggle Led to a Record Surge in Homelessness www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/u...
- C-Span is a national treaure that allows an unfiltered look at government. Now more than ever we must save @c-span.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
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- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyySarah Stillman investigates a widespread crisis of deaths by starvation in America’s county jails. Most of the victims she identified had been arrested in the midst of a mental-health crisis, often on petty charges tied to their psychiatric distress.
- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyRFK Jr. wants to Make America Healthy Again. But he's ignoring the country's leading cause of preventable deaths: smoking.
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- House Rules Committee hearing today on the SUPPORT Act is an example of the shell game of authorizing programs that won’t be funded & can’t be administered w/out staffing. $1B in HHS funding has been clawed back & 20,000 HHS employees have lost jobs-not including Medicaid or other budget proposals.
- Preventing harm is a cornerstone of public health, even if success is less visible or harder to measure. But the consequences of the thoughtless slashing to public health funding will be unmistakable and long-lasting. apnews.com/article/publ...
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- By focusing solely on drug seizures as a measure of success, this administration overlooks the broader, more meaningful indicators of progress in drug policy. The Administration’s narrow approach will ultimately undermine long-term solutions and cost lives. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
- New Office of National Drug Control Policy budget request is online. Two key takeaways - moves the High Intensity Drug Trafficking & Drug Free Communities programs to DOJ & HHS. This was in Project 2025 and attempted in the 1st Trump Administration. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
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- Important work from the @prisonpolicy.org about limitations on health care in prisons linked to copays news.prisonpolicy.org/t/r-e-thhjti...
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- MAHA report released. It chronicles a list of dire facts about US health, and provides a list of technocratic responses at the end. The report notes the decline in US life expectancy w/out mentioning the connection this has to overdoses and alcohol related disease. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
- House passes reconciliation bill - if signed into law, 8.7 million people will lose Medicaid, while adding $2.4 trillion over 10 years to the national debt. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
- The DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment - issued just 6 days ago - doesn’t back this up. www.dea.gov/sites/defaul...
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- Latest piece on the impact of the 1st 100 days of the Trump Administration on addiction policy. Thank you Journal of Addiction Medicine & David Fiellin. journals.lww.com/journaladdic...
- While overdose death rates remain high, newly released data show the US is on the right track to bring rates down further. Now isn’t the time to retreat from what is working. Latest piece w/David Holtgrave oneill.law.georgetown.edu/reflections-...
- Important piece by three state health secretaries on dire impact cuts to Medicaid will have on the progress made in reducing overdose deaths. www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/f...
- Looking forward to this discussion with @brandondelpozo.bsky.social
- The Week in Drug Policy open.substack.com/pub/reginala...
- Cutting naloxone funding is short sighted, and most importantly, will cost lives www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/h...
- C-SPAN is a national treasure and streaming companies should pay the 7cents/month it would cost them to make it available. Thanks to Karen Tumulty for writing this. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
- HHS may try again to merge the National Institute on Drug Abuse & the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism - will objections be raised again by the alcohol industry? See story from 2012 - NIH Backs Off Plan to Merge Addiction Institutes www.science.org/content/arti...
- Good piece by @alecmac.bsky.social on the decimation of the federal government’s data collection - if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t matter www.propublica.org/article/trum...
- New DAWN report out from HHS. DAWN collects data from emergency departments and is an early warning system to identify potentially dangerous drug trends. Unfortunately, it’s targeted for cuts by OMB. Report here library.samhsa.gov/product/drug...
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- Latest substack on the budget targets sent to HHS by OMB open.substack.com/pub/reginala...
- This OMB doc to HHS sets budget targets & provides directives, ie, folding SAMHSA into the “Administration for a Healthy America” to focus on “childhood chronic diseases”. Ironic then that it proposes eliminating programs to prevent substance use disorder. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyThe FDA is asking laid-off employees to temporarily return after mass cuts decimated the agency’s ability to penalize stores that sell cigarettes and vapes to minors.
- New from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee - Minority on the important role Medicaid plays in providing access to OUD treatment for Americans. If states w/trigger laws lose federal Medicaid funds 100,000 people w/OUD will lose medication treatment. Report here www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cach...
- And if the administration decimates funding for treatment programs, overdose rates will increase and the trauma continues. Thank you @julialurie.bsky.social for your coverage.
- Great working with you on this piece @holtgrave-health.bsky.social !
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- As POTUS welcomes El Salvador’s Bukele this week, a little background reading on the authoritarian leader. Corruption and a failed experiment in bitcoin continue to plague his regime insightcrime.org/el-salvador-...
- Seems the power of the federal purse has been handed over to DOGE staff. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
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- My latest on Substack. Cuts, Claw Backs, and Drug Policy Priorities. open.substack.com/pub/reginala...
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- Appreciate Kathryn Blaze Baum of @theglobeandmail.com for speaking to me about Canada and the source of illegal fentanyl. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
- Reposted by did:plc:lko5kbqvly3ebmssbzskesyyHHS doctors, scientists and tobacco control staff, rare disease experts, cancer drug wizards -- all fired today or leaving in recent weeks. Yet. 🚨 At HHS, staff make up less than one percent of the overall agency budget. 🚨 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/h...
