Final Report From White House Opioid Panel Set For Release

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The final report of the White House Opioid Panel, chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is due out on November 1st.

As WCBS 880's Kelly Waldron reports, the report will not only discuss ways to deal with the drug crisis, it will also look at how we got here.

Christie says 64,000 people have died from opioid abuse.

"If we had 64,000 Americans being killed in some other way I think that reaction would be significantly different than it has been," he said.

The governor says families need to know what effective treatment options are available.

"You get sent to a methadone clinic, you're getting methadone," he said. "You get sent to a withdrawal place, that's what you're getting. Regardless of how you present it, what other chronic diseases do we treat that way."

President Trump said he will follow one of the commission's initial suggestions and declare the crisis a national emergency.