The Obama administration will propose a significant boost in federal spending to battle the nation’s heroin addiction epidemic when the president unveils his budget recommendations next week. This funding will be included in the fiscal 2017 budget request.
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$920 million to help states expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders.
Another $50 million would go to substance-abuse treatment providers, and $30 million would be available to evaluate the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment programs.
This 2014 heat graph provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, displays heroin overdose deaths per population of 100,000 across the United States. More than 2 million Americans are in need of treatment, administration officials said in a news conference, but only 1 million now have access to it. And in October, I announced plans to train more federal health care workers who prescribe opioids, identify barriers to good treatment and rally support from outside of government to help address this epidemic.
ASHP has a long track record of working with the White House, FDA, CDC, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and other groups to develop interprofessional education materials about access to opioids, diversion, and opioid abuse, as well as the appropriate use of these medications. Drug overdose deaths and rates of drug abuse have been on the rise in the Granite State, and as Gov. Maggie Hassan told the Daily Beast in August, candidates for president “cannot go into a room in New Hampshire, of more than a couple of people, and not have them raise the issue of how substance abuse is impacting our state”. “And this is about the needs in their community and making progress on problems that are front and center in numerous communities they have”.
Only about half of the 2.2 million U.S. residents who need treatment for opioid addiction are now receiving it, said Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during a press call on Tuesday. Burwell and Michael Botticelli, director of the National Drug Control Policy, was asked about this trend and why opioid use was up under President Obama’s watch.
Despite bipartisan interest in fighting the epidemic, it is unclear whether Congress will back Obama’s proposed funding.
Tomi St. Mars, chief of the state health department’s Office of Injury Prevention, said prescription abuse and heroin use have been an issue in the state since the 1990s.
U.S. President Barack Obama seeks $1.1 billion in funds to act upon the problem of prescription opioid and heroin addiction. “States will receive funds based on the severity of the epidemic and on the strength of their strategy to respond to it”, according to a White House fact sheet. “We agree with the intent of the legislation in that we really need a comprehensive response”, he said.
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“I support providing additional resources to help fight this epidemic”, said Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, one of the authors of the bill. King said ME stands to benefit from the new funding.
