The Biden administration said Thursday it’s spending $450 million in the fight against drug overdoses, doling out dollars for rural communities, data collection and a fentanyl-awareness campaign.
The new funding is part of President Biden’s two-track strategy of treating addiction and expanding the use of overdose-reversing naloxone while disrupting the trafficking streams of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
“Overdoses have flattened in 2022 after sharp increases in 2019 to 2021. This shows that our efforts are working. Still, we cannot stop. We need to double and triple down with urgency to save as many lives as possible,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The largest tranche of new funding, $279 million, will be Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants to states and districts to support drug treatment and improve data collection on overdoses “so that we can get ahead of the constantly evolving overdose crisis,” a White House fact sheet says.
The administration said grants will flow directly to cities and counties and not just state health departments.
Among other awards, $80 million will go to rural communities in 39 states to set up new treatment sites, expand the availability of overdose-reversing drugs, bolster mental health care for minors, and treat infants exposed to opioids.
Politicians from both parties have thrown billions at the opioid problem. The crisis took root decades ago because of the overuse of prescription painkillers, which led to heroin addiction in the illicit market.
Yet the death toll skyrocketed when fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, entered the illicit heroin supply in the middle of the last decade.
Despite signs of optimism in the early Trump years, the rate of overdose deaths spiked during the pandemic before easing the past year. Over 100,000 Americans are still dying, on average, over a given 12-month period.
Dr. Gupta said that all told, the Biden administration has devoted $83 billion to opioid treatment and recovery, or 42% more than the Trump administration did over four years.
Yet GOP candidates see an opening as they compete to face Mr. Biden in 2024. They brought up the fentanyl threat repeatedly during the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 23, mainly to argue Mr. Biden is falling short because of his lax border policies.
“When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that’s going to be the last thing they do. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone-cold dead,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said from the Milwaukee stage.
Another contender, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, has been vocal about cracking down on China, which supplies many of the precursor chemicals that Mexican cartels use to create fentanyl in clandestine labs.
“Don’t think for a second China doesn’t know what they’re doing. So what I would do is say to China, ‘we will end all normal trade relations with you until you stop killing Americans.’ We are losing too many,” she told the CBS News show “Face the Nation” in midsummer.
Dr. Gupta insisted Mr. Biden is taking a tough stance on Chinese chemical suppliers. The director pointed to sanctions on Chinese companies and stiffer “know your customer” protocols that require Chinese shipments to have details on senders and recipients.
The White House detailed the grants on International Overdose Awareness Day.
Dr. Gupta, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff met Thursday with 50 people who lost a family member to a drug overdose.
Mr. Emhoff said he remembered many of the attendees from a similar event last year.
“Those stories that you shared and the pictures that you showed me, like I said, just seared into my memory,” he said. “I talked about it with the president and the vice president at length and I will continue to do so and I look forward to seeing my wife tonight and talking about what happened here today.”
The Food and Drug Administration earlier this year approved the sale of overdose-reversing naloxone for over-the-counter sale without a prescription. The hope is that more people will have access to naloxone and prevent deaths.
“Naloxone products could be available at retail pharmacies as early as next week. This will make a huge difference in driving down the numbers of people who have died from fentanyl-related overdoses,” said Neera Tanden, director of Mr. Biden’s Domestic Policy Council.
The new batch of funding includes nearly $19 million in fiscal 2023 discretionary money for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, which combats the violence that often comes with drug trafficking.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is awarding nearly $58 million to support treatment and recovery programs and train emergency medical service personnel to respond to overdose sufferers.
The administration also is adding $1 million to its Real Deal on Fentanyl awareness campaign with the Ad Council. The campaign offers basic facts about the synthetic opioid and describes how fentanyl is pressed into counterfeit pills that are mislabeled, killing unsuspecting users.
Dr. Gupta on Thursday said so many of the pills, which are often purchased online, have fentanyl in them that it is like “playing Russian roulette with your life.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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