Presidential Document2023-18882
Overdose Awareness Week, 2023
Primary source
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Published
August 30, 2023
Signed
August 25, 2023
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 167 (Wednesday, August 30, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 30, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59785-59786]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18882]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 167 / Wednesday, August 30, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 59785]]
Proclamation 10608 of August 25, 2023
Overdose Awareness Week, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The overdose epidemic is a national crisis, and for
millions of Americans, it is personal. Too many
families have lost their children, siblings, parents,
and friends to substance misuse and overdose. Every
loss is a painful reminder that we must take bold
action to end our Nation's overdose epidemic. During
Overdose Awareness Week, we reaffirm our commitment to
beating this public health and public safety epidemic--
in memory of all those we have lost and to protect all
the lives we can still save.
People with substance use disorder face too many
barriers to treatment. And while synthetic opioids,
like illicitly produced fentanyl, are driving the
majority of overdose deaths today and perpetuating
addiction, we know that prevention and recovery are
possible if people get the support and treatment they
need. That's why my Administration established a
National Drug Control Strategy that goes after two
major drivers of the overdose epidemic: untreated
addiction and drug trafficking.
My Administration has worked hard to ensure that
substance use disorder is treated like any other
disease, funding the expansion of prevention,
treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support
services. As a part of my Unity Agenda, we passed a law
making it easier for doctors to prescribe effective
treatments, leading to an unprecedented and historic
expansion that finally put help within reach for
millions of Americans.
Through the American Rescue Plan, we delivered more
than $5 billion to strengthen and expand State and
community mental health and substance use disorder
services. We also addressed the mental health of
frontline workers, like nurses, who are dealing with
this crisis every day, by directing $103 million
specifically to meet their needs. And my Bipartisan
Safer Communities Act went even further--providing
billions of dollars to improve mental health services
for young people, including hiring and training more
school mental health counselors so young people get the
care they need.
We continue to fight the stigmatization that surrounds
substance use disorder so people feel comfortable
reaching out for help when they need it. The Food and
Drug Administration approved two Naloxone products--an
opioid overdose reversal medication--for over-the-
counter use. Now, every American will be able to access
this life-saving medication. And our new National
Response Plan to address the deadly combination of
fentanyl mixed with xylazine coordinates efforts across
all of government to confront this dangerous emerging
threat.
My Administration is also disrupting the flow of
illicit drugs by making it costlier to bring killer
drugs into America; going after drug traffickers'
profits; and targeting their financial networks, supply
chains, and delivery routes, including on the internet.
We have strengthened coordination and information
sharing among our intelligence and domestic law
enforcement agencies to dismantle drug traffickers and
their networks. So far, my Administration has seized
more than 1.6 million pounds of drugs before they
crossed the border and entered into our communities,
including over 42,500 pounds of illicitly manufactured
fentanyl. And we are not done. Drug overdose deaths
leveled off in 2022 after sharp increases from 2019 to
2021. Now,
[[Page 59786]]
we must double down on this work, which is why my
proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024 requests a
historic $46.1 billion for national drug control
programs. The Congress must act to invest in solutions
that will prevent these drugs from ever hitting our
streets and getting into the hands of our loved ones,
including by passing all of the measures called for in
my Administration's 2021 recommendations to the
Congress on reducing illicit fentanyl-related
substances, which will strengthen public health and
public safety.
Today, I grieve with all those who have lost someone to
an overdose. May we find hope in the more than 20
million brave Americans recovering from substance use
disorder, who show us what is possible when people have
the care, treatment, and support they need. My
Administration will continue to ensure that our Nation
has the resources we need to address this crisis,
prevent illicit drugs from reaching our communities,
and finally defeat the overdose epidemic in our Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 27
through September 2, 2023, as Overdose Awareness Week.
I call upon citizens, government agencies, civil
society organizations, health care providers, and
research institutions to raise awareness of substance
use disorder so that our Nation can combat
stigmatization, promote treatment, celebrate recovery,
and strengthen our collective efforts to prevent
overdose deaths. August 31st also marks Overdose
Awareness Day, on which we honor and remember those who
have lost their lives to the drug overdose epidemic.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
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(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-18882
Filed 8-29-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 30, 2023.
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