Politico: Kentucky among red states to reject Trump’s shift on overdose prevention

🌎 Resumen en español · traducción automática

El gobierno de Trump y el secretario de Salud Robert F. Kennedy Jr. están reduciendo el presupuesto federal para iniciativas de reducción de daños como programas de intercambio de jeringas y pruebas de drogas, pero algunos estados republicanos como Kentucky están aumentando su propio financiamiento para estos programas. El fiscal general republicano de Kentucky, Russell Coleman, anunció en abril una quinta ronda de subvenciones por abusos de opioides que distribuirá 34 millones de dólares entre más de 100 organizaciones de adicción. Los funcionarios republicanos estatales creen que la reducción de daños merece parte del crédito por los cuatro años consecutivos de disminución en muertes por sobredosis que ha experimentado Kentucky.

Traducción y resumen generados por IA a partir del artículo en inglés. Puede contener errores; consulte el texto original.

By Melissa Patrick, Kentucky Health News · July 20, 2026

President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are cutting the federal budget for harm reduction initiatives that are meant to make illicit drug use less deadly, such as syringe exchange programs and drug testing strips, Amanda Friedman reports for Politico. But some red states are boosting their own funding for those programs.

Included among those red states is Kentucky, through its Opioid Abatement Settlement Advisory Commission, which is housed in the Attorney General’s Office. In April, Attorney General Russell Coleman announced the fifth round of opioid settlement grants to more than 100 groups. The organizations will receive a total of $34 million.

“Kentucky’s Republican attorney general announced millions of dollars of grant funding to addiction nonprofits this spring,” Friedman writes. She also points to other examples of initiatives by Republican lawmakers in Florida and Indiana.

“The moves come after Trump signed an executive order in July that directed an agency in the Health Department to cut funding for harm reduction programs and safe-consumption efforts. They also happened after that agency told grantees in April that they could no longer use federal dollars to purchase test strips,” Friedman writes.

Kennedy, a former heroin addict who credits Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12-step group support program with saving his life, said last month, “Harm reduction doesn’t work.”

Friedman reports that the “root of the split on the right” is the increase in fatal overdoses that occurred during the pandemic, which have since plummeted, adding that Republican state officials think harm reduction should receive some of the credit. Kentucky has seen four straight years of declines in overdose deaths.

“The Trump administration has continued to champion access to the opioid-reversal medication naloxone, and Kennedy has also endorsed continued use of medication that helps people addicted to opioids avoid fentanyl, such as methadone and buprenorphine,” Friedman writes. However, Kennedy favors spiritual-based programs.

Friedman reports that research shows naloxone reduces overdose deaths, and syringe exchanges decrease blood-borne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis. However, she writes that evidence is less clear when it comes to other interventions, such as the use of fentanyl test strips, due to gaps in domestic research.