Dying to Find Budget Cuts: The War on Narcan
In Trump’s America, tax cuts for the wealthy matter more than saving lives.
Last month, the Trump administration quietly introduced a proposal to eliminate $56 million in federal funding for Narcan (naloxone) education and distribution programs — a life-saving initiative that has helped blunt the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history. It’s the first time the federal government has ever attempted to cut funding for naloxone.
Amid battles over mass deportations, constitutional showdowns, and the president’s open defiance of court orders, it’s no surprise this policy slipped quietly under the radar — just another quiet move lost in the chaos we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration.
Framed as a budgetary measure, the move makes one thing clear: saving lives from opioid overdoses is no longer a budget priority.
Narcan isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s the antidote to opioid overdoses, especially those caused by fentanyl. Slashing this funding isn’t just shortsighted. It’s a moral failure that will leave a body count.
What Narcan Does — and Why It Matters
Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose within minutes. It’s easy to administer, widely endorsed by public health experts, and carried by EMTs, school staff, community workers, and even family members of those at risk.
This funding helps distribute Narcan and train people in how to use it — especially in rural and underserved areas. Without it, countless people would already be dead.
Over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, most due to fentanyl. This crisis doesn’t discriminate. Red states and blue states alike are being devastated. And yet, the administration wants to strip away the most immediate, effective life-saving tool we have.
The People This Will Hurt First
The communities hit hardest by opioid deaths are the same ones most reliant on these programs. Small towns, rural counties, and low-income neighborhoods often lack local health infrastructure. For many of them, this federal funding is their only way to access Narcan.
Take it away, and you don’t just reduce access — you sentence people to die alone while help sits unfunded in a warehouse or slashed from a budget line.
Contradicting Logic and Lives
The administration claims this proposal is about cutting costs. But cutting Narcan will almost certainly cost more — in emergency room visits, ambulance responses, autopsies, and the long-term care of overdose survivors with brain damage.
It’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s cruelty once again masquerading as government efficiency.
Worse, it directly contradicts the administration’s own rhetoric. Trump and his allies have made fentanyl a centerpiece of their political messaging — calling for mass deportations, militarized borders, and harsher drug penalties to “stop the flow” of fentanyl into the country.
Here’s the simple truth: you don’t fight fentanyl by defunding the antidote.
Narcan doesn’t stop drugs at the border — it stops death in real time, in real homes, in real communities. You can’t arrest your way out of an addiction crisis. And you certainly can’t claim to care about saving lives while stripping away the one tool proven to do it.
What Happens If This Goes Through?
If the Narcan grant is eliminated:
Fewer first responders will carry it.
Community programs will shut down.
Volunteers, teachers, librarians — the people most likely to witness an overdose — will go untrained and unprepared to help.
More people will die preventable deaths.
And once that infrastructure disappears, it’s not easily rebuilt. The cost of this budget cut will be paid for in the lives of our neighbors and our children.
Who’s Behind This?
The proposal came from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump administration. And at the center of it is HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a man who is, incredibly, a recovering opioid addict himself.
Kennedy has publicly shared his past struggles, which makes his role in this decision not only perplexing, but infuriating. It’s proof of how deeply one must sacrifice their integrity to serve Trump’s tax agenda.
Even the lived experience of addiction gets buried when the mission is to slash services and serve wealthy donors.
And it doesn’t stop with Narcan. The same draft budget proposes cuts to mental health services, substance abuse prevention programs, and rural health clinics — programs that serve millions of Americans on the margins. This isn’t about balancing the books. It’s about choosing winners and losers. And Trump hates losers.
In his vision of America, the losers are the addicted, the sick, and the poor — sacrificed so the rich can get another tax break.
What Can We Do?
This proposal isn’t final. Congress has the power to reject it — and public pressure can make all the difference.
Call your representatives. Share this issue. Support harm reduction groups in your area. Educate your community.
The fight for Narcan is part of a much bigger fight — one for compassion, reason, and a public health system that values every life, not just those with stock portfolios.
The Price of Trump’s Priorities
Policies like this don’t make the front page. They don’t spark breaking news alerts. But they determine who lives and who dies.
Cutting Narcan isn’t just an unfortunate side effect of budget tightening. It’s a deliberate, ideological decision to abandon people who need help the most, to fund tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. This is Trump’s America.
And if saving lives isn’t worth the money, then we’ve already lost more than we realize…
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Hal Benz is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, business strategist, and life coach with more than 30 years of experience helping people and organizations grow with purpose. He blends emotional insight with sharp strategic thinking to support personal transformation, leadership development, and values-driven activism.
He lives in northern New Jersey with his wife of 34 years and their two rescue cats, affectionately named after folk singers Harry and Tom Chapin.