Blumenthal Applauds President's $1.1 Billion Initiative to Address Opioid Abuse, Heroin Epidemic

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today applauded President Obama’s budget request for $1.1 billion in new funding to address prescription opioid abuse and the heroin epidemic. The President’s budget request includes $1 billion in new mandatory funding over two years to expand access to treatment for prescription drug abuse and heroin use. This funding includes: 

• $920 million to support cooperative agreements with States to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders. States will receive funds based on the severity of the epidemic and on the strength of their strategy to respond to it. 
• $50 million in National Health Service Corps funding to expand access to substance use treatment providers.  This funding will help support approximately 700 providers able to provide substance use disorder treatment services, including medication-assisted treatment, in areas across the country most in need of behavioral health providers.
• $30 million to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs employing medication-assisted treatment under real-world conditions and help identify opportunities to improve treatment for patients with opioid use disorders.

“This critical funding would provide a lifeline to states struggling under the strain of the spreading, deadly scourge of heroin use and opioid abuse,” said Senator Blumenthal. “With young people between the ages of 18 and 25 most at risk, the worst prescription opioid and heroin epidemic in our history claimed nearly 29,000 lives in 2014, and many more are at risk today. Despite major advances in Connecticut, including the widespread use of naloxone and greater attention to the prescription of opiate pain killers, we have yet to control and contain this epidemic. I applaud the President’s initiative today, particularly his focus on tools that are effective in reducing drug use and overdose – including prescription drug monitoring, drug take-back events and the overdose drug naloxone.

Over the past few months, Senator Blumenthal has hosted a series of roundtables on opioid abuse and heroin use – events that brought together substance abuse experts, health providers, mental health professionals, law enforcement, first responders and families and individuals affected by the epidemic. Senator Blumenthal co-sponsored the Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). This bill provides emergency funding to aid state and local initiatives for prevention, treatment, enforcement and education programs.

Senator Blumenthal is also a cosponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The bill would expand prevention and treatment programs, increase availability of naloxone to law enforcement and first responders, and strengthen states’ prescription drug monitoring programs. Additionally, Sen. Blumenthal last week led a letter urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to release delayed opioid-prescribing guidelines. Over-prescription of opioid painkillers puts patients at risk of abuse, misuse and addiction, and is closely linked to an escalating heroin crisis.

###