Pubdate: Wed, 03 Feb 2016
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2016 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Juliet Eilperin

FUNDS SOUGHT TO STEP UP FIGHT AGAINST OPIOID ABUSE

White House officials announced Tuesday that they will seek nearly 
$1.2 billion in new federal funding over the next two years to 
address the growing abuse of heroin and prescription opioids.

The centerpiece of the proposal is $1 billion in mandatory funding 
expand access to treatment for prescription-drug abuse and heroin 
use, $920 million of which would go to the states. About $500 
million, some of which is a continuation of existing funds, would 
support work by the departments of Health and Human Services and 
Justice to expand not just treatment but also access to the 
overdose-reversal drug naloxone and to support targeted enforcement activities.

Current federal funding supports grants for medication assisted 
treatment for opioid use in 22 states, according to White House 
officials. The new budget request would expand that to 45.

Officials from both parties have intensified their focus on opioid 
use. Last month, Obama appointed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to 
lead a new interagency effort focused on addressing the issue in 
rural America, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell( R-Ky .) 
and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) have agreed to take 
up legislation on the issue.

The total number of U.S. deaths linked to opioids- a class of drugs 
that includes prescription pain medications as well as heroin - 
reached 28,648 in 2014, exceeding the number of deaths from car crashes.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary 
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, a native of West Virginia, noted that her 
home state has been hit particularly hard by the problem but said "no 
community has been immune ."

"Personally, I know the families who have suffered deeply from loss, 
and continue to struggle in their families," she said.

The funding includes $460 million over two years for what Burwell 
called "evidence-based intervention efforts."

It is unclear whether lawmakers will accept the administration's 
proposal or push for a different strategy. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), 
whose bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act was set to 
be marked up Thursday, said in a statement that "if the White House 
is serious about fighting the heroin epidemic, the president will 
signal his support" for that bill.

Michael Botticelli, who directs the White House Office of National 
Drug Control Policy, said the administration and lawmakers such as 
Portman share the goal of working "to ensure that we have a 
comprehensive, unified response" to the epidemic. But he said the 
White House is not ready to endorse the senator's legislation.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom