President Donald Trump will hold off on declaring a national emergency on opioid abuse, the administration's top health official said Tuesday. While an emergency declaration could make it easier to spend money on the crisis, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told reporters that the administration thinks it has the resources it needs to address the issue at the moment.

While Price said that Trump considers the situation an emergency and that the formal declaration was still an option, he said the situation "can be addressed without a declaration of an emergency, although all things are on the table for the President."

The federal funding was curtailed last month without explanation and without warning: $214 million for teen pregnancy prevention programs across the country.

The city of Baltimore lost $3.5 million, money that Health Commissioner Leana Wen said had supported classes in anatomy and physiology and counseling in social and emotional issues related to sex for 20,000 teens, plus training for 115 teachers. She worries what the loss of funds will mean for local teen pregnancy rates, which already are twice as high as the state's and much higher than the U.S. average.

“This is a central health issue for thousands of vulnerable teens,” she said. “What is going to be the downstream effect on society?”

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For the first time ever, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the state are more than heroin-related ones.
It’s impacting the most people in Baltimore.

In a city that’s in the midst of an epidemic of violence. There’s another crisis – fentanyl.

The numbers, at first glance, are staggering – 123 fentanyl intoxication deaths from January to March of this year in Baltimore, a third of the fentanyl related deaths in the state.

“Even patients have no clue of the substance that they’re using, how toxic it is, and how fatal it is,” Nurse Practitioner Marian Currens said.

Fatalities, she says, that are skyrocketing.

She wears multiple hats on the front lines of the heroin and fentanyl crisis at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Midtown campus.

The Maryland Health Department reports the number of deaths from fentanyl in the first quarter of the year are the highest they’ve been in 10 years.

It’s a problem impacting decision makers and those who see the epidemic first hand like Currens.

“This past weekend, another patient who was seemingly doing well, had a mishap died – needle in his arm. He left a wife and two young children,” she said.

It’s why Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen wants to a holistic approach to the problem, saying a quick fix won’t patch the state’s gaping wound.

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