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New Mexico holds summit on opioid drug crisis

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Public health experts are looking for additional solutions to New Mexico's opioid addiction crisis at a policy summit in the state capital. State Rep. Deborah Armstrong helped organize the Thursday gathering and hopes it will help enhance and expand successful approaches to combating the opioid crisis, especially if more federal funding were to become available for New Mexico. President Donald Trump last week declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency without promising additional spending. Overdose death rates in New Mexico have hovered well above the national average, even as the state has implemented pioneering policies to rein in fatalities. Trump's commission on the opioid crisis called Wednesday for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment.