{"id":7428,"date":"2017-05-26T21:26:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T21:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2664027&amp;preview_id=2664027"},"modified":"2017-05-26T21:26:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T21:26:01","slug":"he-lied-to-me-trumps-budget-lets-down-families-hit-by-drug-addiction-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/he-lied-to-me-trumps-budget-lets-down-families-hit-by-drug-addiction-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe lied to me\u201d: Trump\u2019s budget lets down families hit by drug addiction crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/he-lied-to-me-trumps-budget-lets-down-families-hit-by-drug-addiction-crisis\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: May 26, 2017, 12:02 pm \u2022 Updated: May 26, 2017, 12:03 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/05\/26\/trump-budget-opioid-addiction\/80340\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Steve Peoples and Carla K. Johnson<\/strong>, <em> The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK \u2014 He slept next to his son\u2019s ashes most nights back when Kraig Moss first met Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In a hall packed with Iowa voters, the presidential candidate looked the middle-aged truck driver in the eye and vowed to fight the opioid crisis that killed his only son two years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe promised me, in honor of my son, that he was going to combat the ongoing heroin epidemic,\u201d Moss said of the January 2016 interaction. \u201cHe got me hook, line and sinker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moss, an amateur musician, quickly sold enough possessions to fund a months-long tour of more than 40 Trump rallies, where he serenaded voters with pro-Trump songs. His guitar, and the ashes of his late 24-year-old son, Rob, were always close by.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had everything riding on the fact that he was going to make things better,\u201d Moss said. \u201cHe lied to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/he-lied-to-me-trumps-budget-lets-down-families-hit-by-drug-addiction-crisis.jpg\" alt=\"trump opioid epidemic\" width=\"1000\" height=\"620\" class=\"size-full wp-image-80342\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this 2013 photo provided by Kraig Moss, Moss, left, poses with son, Rob, in their Owego, N.Y. home. In a hall packed with Iowa voters, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looked Moss in the eye and vowed to fight the opioid crisis that killed his only son Rob two years earlier. But Trump released a federal budget proposal Tuesday, May 23, 2017, that would cut insurance coverage for addiction treatment and funding for research and prevention. (Moss Family Photo via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trump\u2019s budget proposal, released this week, would reduce funding for addiction treatment, research and prevention. The most damaging proposed cut, critics say, is the president\u2019s 10-year plan to shrink spending for Medicaid, which provides coverage to an estimated three in 10 adults with opioid addiction. Members of Congress have said they are unlikely to approve the budget as written.<\/p>\n<p>The blueprint comes weeks after the president celebrated House passage of a Republican health care bill that would dramatically reduce Medicaid coverage, while allowing states to weaken a requirement that private insurance cover addiction treatment. A Congressional Budget Office report on Wednesday said a patient\u2019s cost of substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars a year in states that chose to weaken coverage requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Some see the moves as a painful betrayal of Americans whose families have been devastated by addiction and trusted the president\u2019s repeated pledges to make them a priority once in office. Trump\u2019s budget priorities focus on tax cuts, military spending and border security with massive cuts to programs for the poor and disabled.<\/p>\n<p>Those most frustrated include parents who shared their stories with Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to help those who have become so badly addicted,\u201d Trump insisted during a late-March \u201clistening session\u201d on opioid and drug abuse at the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Attendees included Pam Garozzo, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, whose 23-year-old son died of an overdose in December. Trump\u2019s budget requests, Garozzo said this week, run \u201ccounter to what we thought he was going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat would be a tragedy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re losing a whole generation of young people to this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others responded with similar frustration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t see this coming,\u201d said Paul Kusiak, of Beverly, Massachusetts, who shared with Trump the story of his two sons\u2019 successful battle with opioid addiction during a New Hampshire roundtable discussion eight days before the election. \u201cI\u2019m trying desperately to have hope and take the president at his word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the roundtable, Trump opened up about his father\u2019s struggle with alcoholism. It was enough to convince skeptics in the room he was serious about an epidemic the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says kills 91 Americans each day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believed that he had learned something new and was going to do something about it,\u201d said Patty McCarthy Metcalf, who leads the advocacy group Faces and Voices of Recovery. \u201cHe\u2019s let us down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump has tapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead a task force to combat the opioid crisis. Trump\u2019s budget request, however, raises questions about whether he\u2019s committed to new programs.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, the budget would maintain funding levels, such as $1.85 billion for block grants to states that provide addiction treatment for 2.5 million Americans. Funding has been flat for a decade, and advocates say the grants have lost more than $480 million in purchasing power over that time because of inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also would cut funding for addiction research and eliminate support for the training of addiction professionals. He wants to cut prevention programs by more than 30 percent, according to one advocacy group\u2019s analysis. Trump would cut millions of dollars of federal support of drug courts, prescription drug monitoring programs and state programs aimed at prescription drug overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the president\u2019s commitment to the nation\u2019s opioid epidemic, which has ravaged many of the rural areas and small working-class towns where the Republican drew a lot of support.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s budget turned back from an earlier plan to gut the office of the White House \u201cdrug czar.\u201d In a statement Tuesday, Richard Baum, acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the budget \u201cdemonstrates the Trump Administration\u2019s commitment to stopping drugs from entering the country and supporting treatment efforts to address the burgeoning opioid epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump voter Michelle Jaskulski, of Milwaukee, who has a son and stepson in recovery from opioid addiction, believes in the president\u2019s commitment and overall approach. \u201cMoney for treatment isn\u2019t necessarily a cure-all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Many others touched by the opioid crisis say they\u2019re angry and afraid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInside I\u2019m screaming,\u201d said Sandra Chavez of Sacramento, California, who lost her 24-year-old son, Jeffrey, to a blood infection related to his injection drug use. \u201cWe\u2019re going backward with Donald Trump\u2019s plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Cleveland, a state that gave Trump a critical victory, 36-year-old Justin Butler worries he\u2019ll be back on the streets using and selling heroin if Medicaid no longer paid for his treatment. Butler began his recovery in July after being revived from an overdose in a restaurant parking lot. Trump, he said, is \u201cturning his back on people. He\u2019s a liar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sense of betrayal is perhaps deeper for Moss, 58, who devoted much of last year to promoting Trump\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s back to driving trucks from his home in Owego, New York. He says that perhaps he shares some blame for investing too many emotions into Trump\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe I felt by combatting the heroin epidemic that was going to make me feel complete, as far as losing my son and being able to move on,\u201d Moss said. \u201cAnd maybe that\u2019s why it feels like such a letdown he\u2019s not fulfilling his promises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Johnson reported from Chicago. AP writers Mark Gillespie in Cleveland and Michael Catalini in Newark, New Jersey contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s budget proposal cuts insurance coverage for addiction treatment and funding for research and prevention, moves some are taking as a betrayal of campaign promises. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7038,6811,5662,306,6813,77,5667,7093,9,5019,6983,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[7039,6816,5668,2884,6818,2655,5673,7094,5022,6984],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}