A recent study by Addictions.com looked at the Trump administration’s declaration that the opioid crisis would henceforth be considered a public health emergency in the United States. Though this could be potentially helpful, the study determines that declaring the problem to be a state of emergency, rather than a lower-grade public health emergency, could actually benefit the country in more ways. Would this change actually make a difference, though?
According to Addictions.com, public health emergencies last for 90 days and are usually meant to address serious but short-term issues, such as an outbreak of a strange disease, a serious natural disaster, or an accident that resulted in a large number of fatalities. Usually, these issues are expected to be resolved in most ways by the end of the 90 days (although the president can reinstate the emergency after it expires). While the opioid crisis has been a problem …