New White House drug abuse strategy floats wastewater testing, AI, more treatment

The Trump administration is proposing wastewater testing on a national level to try to ferret out data on illegal drug use in real time, according to a draft of a new drug control strategy obtained by CBS News. The administration also aims to apply artificial intelligence technologies to screen cargo for illicit drugs at ports of entry, examine electronic health records to "identify patients at high risk of overdose" and create search algorithms to detect emerging threats, the plan says. The White House intends to release the 195-page document next week, sources familiar with the matter said. A budget for the strategy was not immediately available. The report comes as U.S. overdose deaths are on the decline after peaking in mid-2023, though they remain well above pre-opioid crisis levels, with over 68,000 deaths reported nationwide in the 12-month period ending in November, according to federal data . But the number of Americans who reported using illicit drugs in the past year ticked up in 2024, mostly due to more marijuana use. And the report describes a landscape of new threats, including fentanyl-laced drugs and newer synthetic drugs. Marketers of addictive substances, including nicotine, alcohol, marijuana and psychedelics, have adopted "strategies similar to Big Tobacco's historical targeting of young audiences," the document says. …