As President Trump prepares to confront multiple crises, including national security, foreign policy, and immigration, another crisis looms. It kills tens of thousands of young Americans annually, inflicting unparalleled suffering on American families. America has never - underscore, never - faced the kind of drug abuse and drug crime epidemic we confront today. The crisis is a hurricane - leadership now critical.

Numbers are breathtaking. Last year 47,055 Americans died of overdoes, double the number from 10 years ago. Of these, 10,000-plus were heroin deaths, up from 2,000. Benzodiazepine deaths jumped five-fold, killing 8,000. Opioid pain relievers tripled, killing 18,000. Marijuana use skyrocketed under President Obama, up 27 percent among kids, according to the National Institutes of Drug Abuse. Phoenix House reports that up to 50 percent become addicted. In 2014, 10 million people drove drug-impaired, and 20 percent of driving deaths were drug-related, not alcohol. Most common? Marijuana, up 47 percent in crashes between 2007 and 2014. Today, 80 percent of men arrested for crime in major cities are on drugs. Of those, 60 percent are using marijuana.