The federal government is giving 16 states more money to combat opioid abuse, an issue that is garnering attention in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced a new program aimed at helping states set up programs to combat opioid overdoses. The agency will dole out $20 million to launch the program.
Over the next four years, the agency will give states annual awards of up to $1 million each year, according to a Friday release. The funding can be used to advance prevention overdoses by enhancing drug monitoring programs and create new methods to investigate the connection between opioid abuse and heroin use.
The agency doesn’t specifically say where the $20 million in funding will come from. President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget included $133 million in new funding to address opioid overdoses, but Congress hasn’t yet approved any final funding bills for the next fiscal year.
The 16 states were chosen after a competitive application process, the CDC said. They are Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Opioid abuse has been a consistent problem in the U.S. over the past couple of decades. Since 1999, overdoses have quadrupled and in 2013 more than 16,000 people died from prescription opioid overdoses, CDC said.
Opioid abuse also often leads to heroin use, which also killed more than 8,000 in 2013.
The issue has reached the 2016 campaign trail. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton announced a plan to spend $10 billion on treatment for addicts.
Her plan would have all first responders carry naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose, and support access to treatment for addicts. This includes making sure insurance providers are complying and promoting better prescribing practices.
