Advocates fear Trump’s addiction recovery initiative is an empty promise
Is this competence or optics?
Addiction recovery advocates are wary that President Donald Trump’s plan for addressing the substance abuse epidemic in the United States won’t sufficiently help the problem without action from Congress and a boost in funding for addiction treatment nationwide.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating the Great American Recovery Initiative, an intergovernmental task force aimed at addressing demand-side factors fueling America’s drug and alcohol epidemic, but the move was met with a degree of skepticism from the advocacy community.
As of 2024, 48.5 million people over age 12 suffered from some sort of substance abuse disorder, nearly 17% of the total U.S. population.
More than 28 million people reported battling drug use disorder, with 1 in 6 of them saying they also struggle with alcohol abuse. Another 27.9 million live with alcohol use disorder.
Trump’s executive order acknowledges that very few of the public actually receive treatment for their substance abuse disorder despite breakthroughs in medicine and psychology to assist in recovery.
The initiative’s task force, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., represents a whole-of-government approach to drive innovation in addiction recovery and spread awareness to reduce stigma.
Kennedy, a recovering heroin addict, told Fox and Friends on Friday that he also lost his brother and two nieces to substance abuse disorder.
Kathryn Burgum, wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump’s newly appointed adviser for addiction recovery working alongside Kennedy, is also a recovering alcoholic, who started abusing alcohol as a teenager.
WATCH IN FULL: @SecKennedy and @KathrynBurgum appear on @foxandfriends to share their personal journeys to recovery and their role as co-chairs of @POTUS’s Great American Recovery Initiative.
— HHS (@HHSGov) January 30, 2026
Addiction recovery advocates are not wholly optimistic about the executive action without substantive commitments of federal funding to increase access to treatment.
Dr. Stephen Taylor, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, applauded the administration’s decision to address addiction as a chronic disease, but said it ultimately needed to be backed by sufficient expansion of Medicaid and Medicare coverage “to address the full continuum of addiction care.”
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychology specializing in addiction at Stanford University, told the …
Is this competence or optics?
Addiction recovery advocates are wary that President Donald Trump’s plan for addressing the substance abuse epidemic in the United States won’t sufficiently help the problem without action from Congress and a boost in funding for addiction treatment nationwide.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating the Great American Recovery Initiative, an intergovernmental task force aimed at addressing demand-side factors fueling America’s drug and alcohol epidemic, but the move was met with a degree of skepticism from the advocacy community.
As of 2024, 48.5 million people over age 12 suffered from some sort of substance abuse disorder, nearly 17% of the total U.S. population.
More than 28 million people reported battling drug use disorder, with 1 in 6 of them saying they also struggle with alcohol abuse. Another 27.9 million live with alcohol use disorder.
Trump’s executive order acknowledges that very few of the public actually receive treatment for their substance abuse disorder despite breakthroughs in medicine and psychology to assist in recovery.
The initiative’s task force, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., represents a whole-of-government approach to drive innovation in addiction recovery and spread awareness to reduce stigma.
Kennedy, a recovering heroin addict, told Fox and Friends on Friday that he also lost his brother and two nieces to substance abuse disorder.
Kathryn Burgum, wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump’s newly appointed adviser for addiction recovery working alongside Kennedy, is also a recovering alcoholic, who started abusing alcohol as a teenager.
WATCH IN FULL: @SecKennedy and @KathrynBurgum appear on @foxandfriends to share their personal journeys to recovery and their role as co-chairs of @POTUS’s Great American Recovery Initiative.
— HHS (@HHSGov) January 30, 2026
Addiction recovery advocates are not wholly optimistic about the executive action without substantive commitments of federal funding to increase access to treatment.
Dr. Stephen Taylor, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, applauded the administration’s decision to address addiction as a chronic disease, but said it ultimately needed to be backed by sufficient expansion of Medicaid and Medicare coverage “to address the full continuum of addiction care.”
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychology specializing in addiction at Stanford University, told the …
Advocates fear Trump’s addiction recovery initiative is an empty promise
Is this competence or optics?
Addiction recovery advocates are wary that President Donald Trump’s plan for addressing the substance abuse epidemic in the United States won’t sufficiently help the problem without action from Congress and a boost in funding for addiction treatment nationwide.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating the Great American Recovery Initiative, an intergovernmental task force aimed at addressing demand-side factors fueling America’s drug and alcohol epidemic, but the move was met with a degree of skepticism from the advocacy community.
As of 2024, 48.5 million people over age 12 suffered from some sort of substance abuse disorder, nearly 17% of the total U.S. population.
More than 28 million people reported battling drug use disorder, with 1 in 6 of them saying they also struggle with alcohol abuse. Another 27.9 million live with alcohol use disorder.
Trump’s executive order acknowledges that very few of the public actually receive treatment for their substance abuse disorder despite breakthroughs in medicine and psychology to assist in recovery.
The initiative’s task force, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., represents a whole-of-government approach to drive innovation in addiction recovery and spread awareness to reduce stigma.
Kennedy, a recovering heroin addict, told Fox and Friends on Friday that he also lost his brother and two nieces to substance abuse disorder.
Kathryn Burgum, wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump’s newly appointed adviser for addiction recovery working alongside Kennedy, is also a recovering alcoholic, who started abusing alcohol as a teenager.
WATCH IN FULL: @SecKennedy and @KathrynBurgum appear on @foxandfriends to share their personal journeys to recovery and their role as co-chairs of @POTUS’s Great American Recovery Initiative.
— HHS (@HHSGov) January 30, 2026
Addiction recovery advocates are not wholly optimistic about the executive action without substantive commitments of federal funding to increase access to treatment.
Dr. Stephen Taylor, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, applauded the administration’s decision to address addiction as a chronic disease, but said it ultimately needed to be backed by sufficient expansion of Medicaid and Medicare coverage “to address the full continuum of addiction care.”
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychology specializing in addiction at Stanford University, told the …
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