Overdose Awareness Week, 2024, 68769-68771 [2024-19441]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[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 [www.gpo.gov]
[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.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2024-19441
Filed 8-27-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P