This dramatic increase, as well as a spike in heroin use, is why the White Houseintroduced Monday a $5 million program aimed at curbing heroin use and trafficking.
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The new experiment will only be funded for one year and will span across 15 states, from New England down to D.C.
More specifically, the effort, which was proposed by the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, is looking at hiring 15 health policy analysts and 15 drug intelligence experts to collate necessary data, identify patterns of operation and obtain intelligence about the trafficking trends to street-level laws more swiftly than the current system. The primary focus of the new plan will be to trace the various sources of heroin supply in the States which is leading do innumerable deaths and to find out who is distributing the additives to the dealers.
“This administration will continue to expand community-based efforts to prevent drug use, pursue “smart on crime” approaches to drug enforcement, increase access to treatment, work to reduce overdose deaths, and support the millions of Americans in recovery”, he continued.
Under the plan, $2.5 million…
Of those drug deaths, 103, or 75 percent, were caused by heroin use, she said.
The public health coordinator will oversee reporting of overdose information and issue alerts on unsafe batches, setting the distribution of naloxone, an overdose-fighting drug, or other steps, the White House said.
One of the coordinators will focus on public health, including sending real-time updates to medical professionals to ensure they have the resources they need to fight addiction and overdoses. Over the same period of time, overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled.
New Hampshire saw more than 300 drug-related deaths last year, and police chiefs in major cities are calling for more help to battle the growing crisis. Sen. The Washington Post first reported the plan and the reasoning behind it, citing two senior administration officials.
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Mary Kate Manson, communications director for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said the policies in Connecticut have already been shifting toward opiod prevention and treatment rather than punishment. Secondly, the plan involves the training of first responders on how to use counter-overdose medication. One way states have sought to control opioid abuse has been through prescription-monitoring programs, but a new study posted on the JAMA Internal Medicine website found that Florida’s program, implemented in 2010, had only “modest” success.
