SECRETARY WILKIE: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, I called you two months ago and I said there is a - I had seen it somewhere, and I've read it, regularly, quite a bit about it. I think it's made by Johnson & Johnson. But it's a suicide - if you're depressed -
SECRETARY WILKIE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: - you take it. It's an inhaler. And it almost immediately cures depression, at least for a little while.
And I said,
"Order - corner the market on it and give it to anybody that has the problem." Because you have people calling - and our folks do a great job on the phone, but it's a telephone. You have people calling, looking for help. And if those people had that, I'm hearing like instantaneously they're in much better shape.
How are you doing with that?
SECRETARY WILKIE: We are working with Johnson & Johnson to distribute it. We should have it in all of our VA hospitals -
THE PRESIDENT: That could make a tremendous difference.
SECRETARY WILKIE: - by the end of the year. But it's in the purchasing process right now.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it very effective?
SECRETARY WILKIE: It's very effective.
THE PRESIDENT: So that all of these people that are committing suicide every day - 21, 20, 22 a day killing themselves - that's hard to believe. Honestly, when I heard the number, I said, "It can't be possible. How could it be so many?" If this is as good as we hear it is, certainly on a fairly short term it gets them over that problem. And I assume this lasts for how long a period?
SECRETARY WILKIE: Well, it is treated in stages. I think the first dose lasts for a few days, and then it's a -
THE PRESIDENT: Which is - it gets them over (inaudible).
SECRETARY WILKIE: And you build on that. And you build up to a certain dosage.
THE PRESIDENT: So you're working something with the -
SECRETARY WILKIE: With Johnson, yes. With the company.
THE PRESIDENT: And I think they'll be very generous to you.
SECRETARY WILKIE: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And if you'd like I'll help you to negotiate it, because - seriously, I just said, "Corner of the market."
SECRETARY WILKIE: That's right. That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: All right. So you're working on that. Very important. I think that's going to be incredible. I'll bet the first few months you're going to see numbers that have - people are going to say, "What happened?" If it's as good as I hear. Good. Thank you very much. Good.
MS. CONWAY: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Secretary Wilkie.
It is true that Dr. Collins at NIH continues to develop the non-addictive opioid. And it includes some of the private sector trying to do that that also, Mrs. Trump, Mr. President.
So our effort as the whole-of-government approach has been to treat the whole person. Sometimes, if you're fortunate enough to go through a drug court program or a drug treatment program, you come out on the other side - where are the housing opportunities, the education, skills, employment.
So, through Secretary Acosta and the Department of Labor, they've been able to issue record numbers of dislocated worker grants and actually get the opioid addiction levels down among federal workers.
If you can tell us more about that.
SECRETARY ACOSTA: That's right. So, Mr. President, Mrs. Trump, as you know, we're the largest - the federal government's largest employer. And the Department of Labor oversees the workers' compensation programs for federal workers. Even before you declared it a national emergency, you directed us to make all efforts to address the opioid issue.
And so, since your election, we've had outstanding results. We achieve those through, one, changing the protocols that physicians need to take in order to prescribe under the federal workers' compensation program. Physicians now need to write an individualized assessment and a letter of medical necessity to explain why opioids are needed.
Second, we have a team where physicians prescribe a certain amount or certain dosages. We'll work with that physician to ensure that the treatment is tailored to the individual.
And third, we communicate both with the patient and, by letter, advise them of the danger of opioids, but will also let physicians that prescribe certain amounts or certain dosages know that we're monitoring their prescriptions so that they are aware that those prescriptions might be too high or outside of the range.
And so the results since your election: a 65 percent decrease in claimants receiving a morphine equivalent dose of 500 or more - the highest. A 65 percent decrease. A 51 percent decrease in new prescriptions lasting longer than 30 days. And a one-third decrease in overall opioid use among federal workers.
The second part of this, and as important -
THE PRESIDENT: Does anybody know those numbers? Those numbers are astronomical.
MS. CONWAY: We'll see if they get covered.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps you people can report them. I mean, seriously, those are astronomical numbers. As, really, when you're down 18 percent - those are astronomical numbers too. That's a lot in a short period of time.
SECRETARY ACOSTA: A 65 percent decline in the highest dose. A 51 percent decline in 30 - 30-day or longer prescriptions.
THE PRESIDENT: That's fantastic.
SECRETARY ACOSTA: The second thing that we've done is increase the fraud investigations, because often these are fraudulent prescriptions. And we've gone from three fraud investigations in 2016, to 42 in 2017, to 64 fraudulent investigations for fraud in 2018. So a twentyfold increase in investigations for, in essence, you know, places that are prescribing them fraudulently and getting opioids in the circulation and undermining all these efforts. A twentyfold increase.
And then, finally, you know, going to Kellyanne's point, when individuals receive treatment for opioids, they will leave a center and they will have addressed their issue, but then they need a job. They need a place to live. And so we've been working with governors to fund programs where, in opioid treatment centers, they have access to job training and skills training so that when they are ready to reengage with society, they have a future path that does not involve drugs.
THE PRESIDENT: That's fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alex.
MS. CONWAY: Secretary McAleenan, if you'd like to tell us about the efforts about DHS.
ACTING SECRETARY MCALEENAN: Thank you, Mr. President, Mrs. Trump. Well, we're making significant progress on the law enforcement and interdiction pillar of your strategy over the last 15 months.
DHS - as Kellyanne noted - seized 5,000 pounds of fentanyl and its analogues last year. Another 13,000 pounds of heroin. And we're doing more this year.
The two main vectors remain in the southwest border, as well as in mail coming in. And with our partners at U.S. Postal Inspection Service, we're doing much better in both of those vectors.
One of the things that's been critical is your engagement with China and President Xi, and getting additional data so that that mail coming in, we can access it with advanced systems and do inspections and seizures right there in the mail facilities. Then we follow up with our partners in the investigation side with Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. We made over 200 controlled deliveries taking out pill presses and distribution centers from Manhattan to Oregon in the last year.
THE PRESIDENT: So China is helping you?
ACTING SECRETARY MCALEENAN: China's numbers have gone up dramatically.
THE PRESIDENT: That's fantastic. Nobody knows this. That's fantastic.
