Biden administration allocates $1.5 billion to battle opioid disaster

US President Joe Biden addresses the DISCLOSE Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 20, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The Biden administration announced Friday that it is providing $1.5 billion in grants to help states, territories and tribal areas combat the opioid crisis.

The grants will expand access to treatment and recovery support services, allow states to invest in better overdose education, and improve accessibility to FDA-approved naloxone products used to reverse an opioid overdose.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States last year. The figure marks a 15 percent increase in overdose-related deaths from 2020.

Members of the Biden administration, including Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, attended a Recovery Month Summit on Friday to show support for those in recovery and to discuss grant funding.

“As someone in long-term recovery, I know the importance of access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment,” Walsh wrote on Twitter.

More than $104 million in funding is specifically targeted to support rural communities that have been particularly hard hit by the opioid crisis. It is provided for workforce training, education and outreach, as well as for new drug treatment sites.

Biden also called for an investment of more than $42.5 billion to fund national drug control agencies as part of its fiscal 2023 budget. The investment would represent a $3.2 billion increase from the prior year.