After national scrutiny, Pennsylvania Representative Tom Marino has withdrawn from consideration to lead the National Drug Control Policy office – a position commonly called the Drug Czar. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who has been vocal about his disapproval of the nomination, applauded the move.
The announcement comes just days after an article was released by The Washington Post and CBS’s “60 Minutes” reporting Marino sponsored a 2016 law that weakened the Drug Enforcement Administration’s authority to stop companies from distributing opioids in already devastated areas.
Senator Manchin told reporters in a press call he would like to see President Donald Trump nominate someone who’s in the medical field and who may have dealt with the epidemic first-hand.
“I would say the perfect person would be somebody that has the passion to fight it and cannot be swayed by all the influence, or all the money, or anything else that has swayed people before from doing their job here,” Manchin said.
President Trump told reporters Monday he would consider withdrawing his nomination, but Marino beat him to the decision.
In a letter to Trump, Manchin called the opioid crisis “the biggest public health crisis since HIV/AIDS.” West Virginia is number one in the nation for most overdose deaths related to opioids.