White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has frozen out drug-policy professionals on her “opioid Cabinet,” instead involving the West Wing’s political staff to organize solutions for the deadly addiction crisis that’s ravaging the U.S. The actual Office of National Drug Control Policy has “been systematically excluded from key decisions about opioids and the strategy moving forward,” a former Trump administration staffer told Politico. Meanwhile, the president himself has yet to name a permanent director for the office. Politico reports the ONDCP chief of staff was fired in December, and Acting Director Rich Baum has not once been invited to attend Conway’s opioid meetings.
