https://consumerist.com/2017/10/26/what-will-happen-when-white-house-declares-opioid-crisis-is-public-health-emergency/

It’s pretty clear to anyone who has been paying attention that the opioid abuse epidemic in America has reached emergency status. But it’s one thing for people to casually use that term and another for the White House to actually declare a “Public Health Emergency.” Here’s why.

There’s more than one kind of “Emergency,” when it comes to federal guidelines, and what kind of “Emergency” the White House calls some urgent catastrophe has significant implications for the kind of funding and federal attention it receives.