Trump approves opioid bill

President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill Wednesday devoting $8.5 billion to fighting the opioid crisis. The president said his administration is determined to beat the scourge of drug addiction. “We are going to end it or we are going to at least make an extremely big dent in this terrible, terrible problem,” he said. Nearly 48,000 people died last year from overdoses involving opioids. Overall, U.S. drug overdose deaths have started to level off, but Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said it’s too soon to declare victory. The legislation signed Wednesday covers not only opioids but also any kind of substance abuse. It will add treatment options and get the U.S. Postal Service to screen overseas packages for a synthetic form of opioids called fentanyl largely being shipped from China.