The Biden administration on Thursday said it’s spending $450 million in the fight against drug overdoses, doling out dollars for rural communities, data collection and a fentanyl-awareness campaign as fentanyl kills tens of thousands of Americans despite years of Washington efforts to tackle the problem.
The new funding is part of President Biden’s two-track strategy of treating addiction and expanding the use of overdose-reversing naloxone, which will be available over the counter in the coming days, 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.
Later Thursday, Dr. Gupta and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen will join Doug Emhoff for a White House event with families who have lost someone to a drug overdose.
“This impacts everyone,” Mr. Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, said on a media call.
The effort coincides with International Overdose Awareness Day and increasing focus on the fentanyl scourge in the 2024 campaign.
Administrations from both parties have spent billions on the opioid problem through congressional appropriations. The effort ramped up after deadly synthetic opioids entered the street drug supply during the middle of the past decade.
Despite signs of optimism in the early Trump years, the rate of overdose deaths spiked during the pandemic years before easing the past year. Still, over 100,000 Americans are dying, on average, over a given 12-month period.
GOP candidates brought up the fentanyl threat repeatedly during the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 23. They accused Mr. Biden of letting the problem fester with 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 when — until you stop killing Americans. We are losing too many,” she told CBS’ “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 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 how it’s pressed into fake pills, often killing unsuspecting users.
Grieving families say America has a knowledge gap about the prevalence of counterfeit drugs that are labeled as Adderall or Percocet but contain potent fentanyl.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.