Nearly two weeks ago, President Trump gathered reporters at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to announce his response to the opioid epidemic. With more than 100 Americans dying every day from drug overdoses, Trump declared it was time to take action.

"The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I'm saying officially right now it is an emergency," he said. "It's a national emergency. We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on the opioid crisis."



The announcement was conspicuously short on details. Declaring a national state of emergency involves more than just a brief statement from the president to the press—there's a formal process that requires documents to be signed and legal steps to be followed. And that hasn't happened yet. Trump said he was "going to draw it up," but a White House spokesman confirmed to VICE News that the paperwork still remains incomplete.



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