Presidential Document2024-19441
Overdose Awareness Week, 2024
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 28, 2024
Signed
August 23, 2024
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 68769-68771]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19441]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 167 / Wednesday, August 28, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 68769]]
Proclamation 10793 of August 23, 2024
Overdose Awareness Week, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During Overdose Awareness Week, we mourn those who have
lost their lives to overdose deaths. We acknowledge the
devastating toll the opioid epidemic has taken on
individuals, families, and communities across America.
We reflect on the progress we have made so far in
reducing the number of annual overdose deaths and
protecting American lives--and how much more there is
to do. And we reaffirm our commitment to doing more to
disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic
opioids and support those who suffer with substance use
disorder and their families in all of our communities.
My Administration made beating the opioid epidemic a
key priority in my Unity Agenda for the Nation, calling
for Republicans and Democrats to work together to stop
fentanyl from flowing into our communities, hold those
who brought it here accountable, and deliver life-
saving medication and care across America.
We are working to tackle this crisis through a
comprehensive approach, including by expanding access
to evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm
reduction, and recovery support services as well as
reducing the supply of illicit drugs. We have expanded
access to life-saving treatments, like medications to
treat opioid use disorder, and have increased the
number of health care providers who can prescribe these
medications by 15 times. In February 2024, the
Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule
to comprehensively update the regulations in governing
Opioid Treatment Programs for the first time in 20
years--removing barriers to the treatment of substance
use disorder and expanding access to care. My
Administration has made historic investments in the
State Opioid Response and Tribal Opioid Response
programs to improve prevention; expand treatment; and
deliver free, life-saving medications across America.
Already, this program has delivered nearly 10 million
kits of opioid overdose reversal medications, such as
naloxone.
We also continue to fight the stigmatization that
surrounds substance use and accidental overdose so that
people feel comfortable reaching out for help when they
need it. Naloxone is now available over-the-counter for
people to purchase at their local grocery stores and
pharmacies. We also launched the White House Challenge
to Save Lives from Overdose and several awareness
campaigns, raising awareness and securing commitments
from local governments and cross-sector organizations
to increase training on and access to opioid overdose
reversal medications in schools, worksites, transit
systems, and other places where overdose may occur in
our communities. My Fiscal Year 2025 Budget requests
$22 billion to expand substance use treatment and help
more Americans achieve and stay in recovery.
Under my Administration, Federal law enforcement agents
are keeping more deadly drugs out of our communities
than ever before. We are seizing deadly drugs at our
borders so that illicit drugs never reach our
neighborhoods. Officials have stopped more illicit
fentanyl at ports of entry over the last 2 fiscal years
than in the previous 5 fiscal years combined. The
Department of Justice has prosecuted leaders of the
world's largest and
[[Page 68770]]
most powerful drug cartel along with thousands of drug
traffickers. The Department of the Treasury has
sanctioned more than 300 people and organizations
involved in the global illicit drug trade. I have also
deployed cutting-edge drug detection technology across
our southwest border, and I continue to call on the
Congress to strengthen border security, increase
penalties on those who bring deadly drugs into our
communities, and close loopholes that drug traffickers
exploit. And in July 2024, I issued a National Security
Memorandum that calls on all relevant Federal
departments and agencies to work collaboratively to do
even more than they are already doing to stop the
supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids
into our country.
I am also committed to working with partners across the
globe to address this crisis. Last year, I negotiated
the re-launch of counternarcotics cooperation between
the United States and the People's Republic of China--
which has led to increased law enforcement
coordination, increased efforts to tackle illicit
financing of drug cartels, and increased regulation of
certain precursor chemicals. I have increased
counternarcotics cooperation with other key foreign
governments; launched the Global Coalition to Address
Synthetic Drug Threats, which brings together more than
150 countries in the fight against drug trafficking
cartels; put in place new initiatives between the
United States, Mexico, and Canada targeting the supply
of illicit drugs; and made countering fentanyl and
other synthetic opioids a key priority of the G7.
Now for the first time in 5 years, the number of
overdose deaths in the United States has started to
decline. But even one death is one too many, and far
too many Americans continue to lose loved ones to
fentanyl.
Today I grieve with all the families and friends who
have lost someone to an overdose. This is a time to
act. And this is a time to stand together--for all
those we have lost and all the lives we can still save.
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 25
through August 31, 2024, 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 31 also marks Overdose Awareness Day, on which
we honor and remember those who have lost their lives
to the overdose epidemic.
[[Page 68771]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
ninth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-19441
Filed 8-27-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 28, 2024.
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