Local leaders react to President Trump’s Opioid Crisis Declaration

President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency earlier this week.

He said it’s one like the country has never seen before.

ABC 17 News spoke to Columbia Councilman Michael Trapp about his thoughts on the President’s declaration.

Trapp said, “I’m pleased to see he made it. I think it draws attention to the issue and I hope we see some positive impact that backs up his words.”

On the local front, Trapp said even though a prescription drug monitoring program has been set up we still don’t have the data to back it up. That’s because it’s still entirely too early to determine.

Trapp said with the declaration, places like Phoenix Health Programs would be able to tap into Medicaid funding, which as of right now, they can’t.

“We didn’t get here overnight and we’re not going to get out of it overnight,” said Trapp.

He also said locally we don’t have a good handle on the epidemic and there’s still a lot of work to be done.