Obama Drug Treatment, $1B Treatment Program

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Obama calls for drug treatment push - President Obama will seek an extra $1.1 billion to pay for drug treatment for people addicted to opioid medications and heroin, which the White House says kills more people than automobile crashes, officials said Tuesday.

The extra money will be included in the upcoming fiscal year 2017 budget request.

Prescription opiods and heroin are closely linked. Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough to give every American adult a bottle of pills, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many believe people addicted to prescription painkillers are turning to heroin because it's cheaper and easier to get after government crackdowns on prescription drug abuse. Between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled, and more than 8,200 people died in 2013, CDC says.

Michael Botticelli, the White House's director of national drug control policy, defended the administration's efforts to combat drug abuse, noting that "while we have seen dramatic increases, we have begun to see signs of progress." He cited reductions in prescription drug use among young people and adults and some "leveling off" in the increase in heroin deaths.

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 their strategy to respond to it.  States can use these funds to expand treatment capacity and make services more affordable.

• $50 million in National Health Service Corps funding to expand access to about 700 substance use treatment providers. including medication-assisted treatment, in areas across the country most in need of mental health treatment.

• $30 million to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs using medication-assisted treatment and help identify opportunities to improve treatment for patients with opioid use disorders.

The budget also includes about $500 million — an increase of more than $90 million — to build on efforts at the Justice Department and the Department of Helath and Human Services to expand state-level prescription drug overdose prevention strategies, increase the availability of medication-assisted treatment programs, improve access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, and support targeted enforcement activities. A portion of this funding is directed specifically to rural areas. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, who is from West Virginia, said the issue is a top priority of hers as her state is one of the most hard hit by drug abuse.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, called on the White House to support the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act, which he said is the only bipartisan legislation that includes a comprehensive and evidence-based approach to help communities combat this epidemic.

"We must also ensure that the programs we have in place focus on proven methods for helping law enforcement and supporting long-term recovery of individuals and families who most need our help," he said in a statement.

Botticelli said that while a comprehensive strategy is needed and that he agrees "with the intent of the legislation," he stopped short of signalling supporting for it.

The spending package signed by Obama last month lifted the nation’s long-standing ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, which allow intravenous drug addicts to trade dirty syringes for clean ones in the hope of preventing disease. Federal funds still can’t be used for the actual syringes, but they can go toward bigger expenses associated with these programs, such as staff, vans, substance use counseling, referral to treatment and outreach in at-risk communities