The White House Drug Policy Office on Monday announced $13.4 million in immediate funding for areas in the North East suffering from a heroin and prescription opioid abuse epidemic.
Michael Botticelli, the director National Drug Control Policy, said $5 million of those funds will go to a broad range of efforts aimed at reducing the trafficking, distribution and use of heroin, a drug the White House said has emerged as a “serious threat” to multiple regions of the United States.
The administration has identified five regional High Intensity Drug Trafficking areas for a $2.5 million Heroin Response Strategy – Appalachia; New England; Philadelphia/Camden, N.J.; New York/New Jersey; and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.
The program, Botticelli said, helps federal, state and local authorities to coordinate drug enforcement operations, support prevention efforts and improve public health and safety.
“The New Heroin Response Strategy demonstrates a strong commitment to address the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic as both a public health and public safety issue,” he said.
“This administration will continue to expand community-based efforts to prevent drug use, pursue ‘smart on crime’ approaches to drug enforcement, increase access to treatment, work to reduce overdose deaths, and support the millions of Americans in recovery,” he continued.
Another $4 million of the funds will support prevention efforts in 18 regional programs, many of which draw on partnerships between law enforcement agencies and their counterparts in public health and education, the White House said.
In an effort to stem the tide of drugs flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border, $1.3 million of the funds will go to five programs along the Southwest border to help investigative efforts against large-scale transnational criminal organizations.
Another $500,000 will go to addressing drug threats on tribal lands.
