Author: Hardiner Harris
The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it would ask Congress to spend an additional $1.1 billion next year to combat a growing epidemic of prescription painkiller and heroin abuse.
Almost half of the new money would be used to expand treatment facilities, which are in short supply in much of the nation.
“Opioid abuse and overdoses have hurt families from across this nation,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said in a news conference. “My home state of West Virginia has felt the cost almost more than any other.”
The other half of the money would go to programs intended to prevent prescription drug overdoses, crack down on illegal sales, and improve access to naloxone, a drug that can rescue those who have overdosed.
The announcement reflected the administration’s growing concerns about one of the few public health epidemics to substantially worsen during President Obama’s tenure. Opioids, which include prescription painkillers and heroin, were involved in 28,648 deaths in the United States in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drugs were a bigger killer than motor vehicle crashes.
The administration’s efforts to combat the toll have been modest and largely ineffective. The epidemic has leveled off somewhat, but it shows no signs of abating, leading addiction experts to complain about Mr. Obama’s response.
In Tuesday’s news conference, Michael P. Botticelli, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, defended the administration’s actions.
“We have made some progress, but we need to do more, particularly as it relates to people accessing treatment,” Mr. Botticelli said.
The administration hopes Congress will allocate $460 million next year for states to fund medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse. While such programs are opposed by some officials and advocates, who say that the medications merely lead to another form of addiction, studies show that they are effective. States would receive funding based on the severity of the epidemic and the strength of their strategy to combat it.
In October, Mr. Obama issued a presidential memorandum requiring federal doctors to receive more training in prescribing opioids. In December, he signed a budget agreement that provided $400 million to fight the opioid epidemic, an increase of $100 million over the previous year.
Efforts to combat the opioid epidemic try to strike a balance between preventing addicts from getting inappropriate prescriptions and ensuring that cancer and surgical patients and others with severe pain can quickly receive the treatment they need.
Mr. Obama traveled to Charleston, W.Va., in October to hear from addicts, their parents and police officers about the epidemic’s effect on communities, and he spoke in personal terms about how he could have been similarly affected himself.
“I did stuff, and I’ve been very honest about it,” he said, referring to his admissions of illegal drug use in his youth. “So when I think about it, there but for the grace of God.”
In his final State of the Union address last month, Mr. Obama mentioned “helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse” as one of the few areas of common ground between Democrats and Republicans.
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, who has sponsored legislation to combat the opioid epidemic, said in a statement Tuesday that “if the White House is serious about fighting the heroin epidemic,” Mr. Obama would support his bill.
In response, Mr. Botticelli said that the administration would continue to work with lawmakers. “We agree with the intent of the legislation in that we really need a comprehensive response,” he said.
The New York Times,