The US federal government has proposed an investment of $1.1bn in the fiscal 2017 budget to address the prescription opioid abuse and heroin use in the country.
The outlay includes $1bn in new mandatory funding across two years to expand access to treat prescription drug abuse and heroin use.
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The proposal recommends the allocation of $920m to support the expansion of access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders in collaboration with states.
It recommends funds to be allotted to the states on the severity of the epidemic and on the strength of their strategy to respond to it.
A fund of $50m will be allocated under National Health Service Corps funding to support approximately 700 health providers capable of providing substance use disorder treatment services.
Additionally, another $30m will be disbursed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programmes employing medication-assisted treatment.
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By GlobalDataA Whitehouse release stated: "The budget proposal also contains approximately $500m, an increase of more than $90m, to continue and build on current efforts across the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand state-level prescription drug overdose prevention strategies, increase the availability of medication-assisted treatment programmes."
The latest move follows the alarming increase in the number of deaths from drug overdoses in the recent years.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that more than 28,648 individuals died in the US in 2014 due to opioids abuse.
The report also revealed that heroin-related deaths in US quadrupled during 2002 and 2013.
