‘This will cost lives’: Researchers slam Trump cuts to addiction programs and staffing

The Trump administration has prioritized combating addiction in the U.S., but a coalition of scientists and research organizations argue in a new report that the president’s efforts to shrink the size of the civil service and otherwise reorganize agencies are undermining that objective.   

“The fact is that we've never seen this kind of dismantling of key components of a scientific field, especially a field that is crucial to the health of all segments of the U.S. population,” said Thomas Babor, a professor emeritus of public health and contributor to the report, during a webinar on May 7. 

In particular, the Addiction Science Defense Network criticized staff cuts and grant terminations at the National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

Elizabeth Ginexi, a report contributor and former NIH official who left the agency last year due to a separation incentive, also emphasized that new research is being slowed; ASDN’s analysis found that funding for new NIAAA and NIDA grants in fiscal 2025 was at its lowest point since 2000. 

“These awards are the studies that will produce knowledge three, five or 10 years from now,” she said during the webinar. “When this pipeline shrinks this sharply, the effects will compound for decades.” 

ASDN also found that the number of new NIAAA and NIDA grants that include the word “gender” decreased from more than 60 in 2024 to about 20 in 2025, which is the lowest level in 25 years. The researchers attributed this to the Trump administration targeting studies that include words associated with diversity, equity and inclusion. 

“Sex and gender are not political categories in addiction science, they are clinical ones,” Ginexi said. “They shape how people metabolize substances, whether they seek treatment and whether they respond to it. Erasing the word doesn't make the science go away. It just means we stop doing it, and this will cost lives.” 

The report also covers a January incident in which the Trump administration canceled $1.9 billion across more than 2,500 grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Officials, however, walked those cuts back shortly thereafter. 

Still, Robert Vincent, former associate administrator for Alcohol Prevention and Treatment Policy at SAMHSA, lamented during the webinar that nearly two-thirds of the agency’s workforce has been pushed out under Trump. Other reports have found that more than half of staffers have separated. 

ASDN noted that many programs to monitor addiction have been scaled back or outright eliminated — including SAMHSA’s Drug Abuse Warning Network, which collected information nationally on hospital visits related to substance use trends. DAWN’s webpage reports that officials stopped collecting that data “as part of a broader effort to align agency activities with agency and administration priorities.” 

Vincent warned that weakening data collection with respect to addiction will make it more difficult for researchers and lawmakers to determine where to prioritize funding in the future. 

“Programs are being cut and the data to justify restoring them is being dismantled or has integrity problems,” he said. “All of this is happening simultaneously. You cannot appropriate what you cannot justify. You can't justify what you cannot measure.” 

Taken as a whole, Babor said that the Trump administration’s cuts have created a climate of fear in the scientific community. As an example, he pointed out that not every researcher who contributed to ASDN’s report was listed. 

“Several other contributors asked to have their names withheld from this list because they feared retribution as current or future grant recipients,” he said at the top of the webinar. “I have been an NIH grant recipient on and off for over 50 years, and I have never encountered a situation until now where scientists had to fear that their contributions to a scientific policy document like this would jeopardize their chances of future funding with the federal government.”

A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department said that officials "remain committed to directing resources toward urgent challenges that address addiction research."

"The Biden administration prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes for the American people. This administration is directing taxpayer dollars toward evidence-based research practices that deliver measurable results, with a focus on continuity of funding, operational stability and strong data to support addiction services and research," they said in a statement to Government Executive. "Both SAMHSA and NIH continue to attract and recruit the best and brightest to deliver meaningful breakthroughs and improve outcomes. Assertions of instability in programs are inaccurate and misrepresent ongoing efforts to ensure responsible stewardship of resources."