Balancing the Prosecutorial Approach

(Fall 2017) From the other side of the political aisle, Democratic senators argued against the Department of Justice’s approach of viewing addiction treatment as a criminal justice issue.  Twenty of them are advocating for increased efforts by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to quell the nation’s large opioid problem. In a letter to the ONDCP’s acting director, the legislators requested that the Trump administration fulfill the former Surgeon General’s recommendations and pointed out that the White House’s new budget proposal would remove close to $400 million from drug and mental health funding.

Two New Hampshire senators, Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Maggie Hassan (D), meanwhile, have proposed legislation that simply seeks to keep the ONDCP operating after information concerning a 95% budget cut proposed by the Trump administration was leaked. Their bill would also introduce ways to make the ONDCP more efficient and work to allocate additional monies for its initiatives.

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