President Obama is expected to roll out new grants and policy changes to address the nation’s opioid and heroin epidemic, as he pushes Congress to approve $1.1 billion in new funding to fight the crisis.
The White House reported Tuesday morning that the administration would dole out $22 million in new grants and release several new policy proposals aimed at the epidemic. Obama is expected to detail the proposals during a speech in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.
The grants include $11 million for up to 11 states to expand treatment services and another $11 million to states to buy an overdose antidote called naloxone and to train first responders how to use it.
A Department of Justice program will give out $7 million to help law enforcement investigate the distribution of heroin and trafficking of the drug and prescription opioids.
President Obama also will talk about several new policy proposals aimed at curbing an epidemic of opioids and heroin that federal data shows kills 78 Americans a day.
The administration introduced a rule Tuesday intended to expand access to the addiction treatment drug buprenorphine.
Under a 2000 federal law, the government must certify any doctor who wants to prescribe the treatment. In the first year of certification, the doctor can give buprenorphine to only 30 patients and 100 the year after that. The ceiling was created to prevent unnecessary prescriptions of the drug, but advocates charge the limit is not supported by science.
The proposed rule, which needs to be finalized, would raise the limit to 200 patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services also is issuing guidance for administration programs regarding needle exchange programs. The budget agreement signed last year revises a long-standing ban to such programs and allows “communities with a demonstrated need to use federal funds for the operational components of syringe service programs,” according to the administration.
White House officials said that such programs, which can be used by addicts to get clean needles, are vital.
“We know that [needle programs] can be a way to engage out of treatment drug users, but also to accelerate and refer people to treatment,” said Richard Frank, assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at HHS, during a Monday call with reporters.
The moves come as Congress debates how to address the problem. The Senate passed a bill called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act by a 94-1 vote last month. The bill aims to increase access to the overdose antidote naloxone and expand treatment programs. An effort by Senate Democrats to add $600 million in funding to the CARA bill failed.
The bill has yet to get a vote in the House, but co-sponsor Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in news reports he is optimistic about its chances.
Earlier this year, Obama announced a proposal for $1.1 billion in new funding for combating opioid and heroin abuse, with an emphasis on treatment.
Congress has not taken up Obama’s proposal. However, more money for fighting opioid abuse appears likely as it is a priority of House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., according to Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., during an interview with Politico.
Cole sits on the House Appropriations Committee’s Labor and HHS subcommittee.
