Biden administration awards $1.5 billion to combat opioid disaster

US President Joe Biden speaks concerning the DISCLOSE Act on the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in Washington, DC on September 20, 2022.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Photos

The Biden administration introduced Friday it’s awarding $1.5 billion in grants to assist states, territories and tribal lands fight the opioid disaster.

The grants will develop entry to remedy and restoration assist companies, permit states to put money into higher overdose schooling and improve the accessibility of FDA-approved naloxone merchandise, that are used to assist reverse an opioid overdose.

Final yr, greater than 107,000 individuals died after overdosing within the US, in line with information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The determine marked a 15% improve in overdose-related deaths from 2020.

Members of the Biden administration, together with Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, attended a Restoration Month Summit Friday to indicate assist for people in restoration and focus on the grant funding.

“As somebody in long-term restoration, I understand how necessary entry to psychological well being and substance use dysfunction remedy is,” Walsh wrote on Twitter.

Greater than $104 million in funding will particularly purpose to assist rural communities, which have been notably hard-hit by the opioid disaster. It will likely be allotted for workforce coaching, schooling and outreach in addition to new websites for medication-assisted remedy.

Biden additionally referred to as for an funding of greater than $42.5 billion in funding for Nationwide Drug Management Businesses as a part of his 2023 fiscal-year price range. The funding would mark a $3.2 billion improve from the earlier yr.