White House proposes new funding for heroin, prescription opioid abuse

WASHINGTON — 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 - which are painkillers - 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 abuse 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 prescription overdose prevention strategies, increase the availability of medication-assisted treatment programs, improve access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, and support enforcement activities. Part of the 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.

Still, she said on a call with reporters Tuesday, "No community is immune."

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, urged colleagues to fully fund the President's budget request.

"Doing so will help deliver the necessary tools and resources to those who are fighting this crisis every day and, ultimately, save lives," he said.

Several areas of the country have been particularly hard hit, however. These include Ohio, southern states such as Kentucky and those in the Northeast, especially New Hampshire, which is holding its presidential primary there next week.

Tonda DaRe, an Ohio mother whose 21-year-old daughter, Holly, died after an accidental heroin overdose, testified on Capitol Hill last week during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the drug epidemic and legislation to address it. She started the group Holly’s Song of Hope, which is dedicated to changing the stigma of addiction.

At the hearing on the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, said drug abuse had gone beyond an epidemic in her state.

"What we have now is a pandemic," she said.

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

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"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 support for it.

Advocates push to expand use of medications to treat addiction

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.

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