SAFE GC Coalition: White House Actions to Overcome Opioid Epidemic

The White House recently released actions made via the National Drug Control Strategy to address overdose deaths, driven primarily by illicitly manufactured synthetic drugs. The strategy delivers on the call to action in President Biden’s Unity Agenda for a whole-of-government approach to overcome the overdose epidemic.

President Biden’s FY 2023 budget request to Congress calls for a historic investment of $42.5 billion for National Drug Control Program agencies, a $3.2 billion increase over the FY 2022 continuing resolution level. The largest increases in funding are for critical public health interventions to expand research, prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services, with targeted investments to meet the needs of populations at greatest risk for overdose and substance use disorder, as well as significant investments in reducing the supply of illicit substances. Since 2021, the following substance use Prevention efforts have been made to expand access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services, as well as taken action to reduce the supply of illicit drugs like fentanyl.

• In 2021, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced that a total of 745 community coalitions in all 50 states received over $93 million through Drug Free Communities program grants. This represents the largest single-year investment in the program’s history. In 2022, ONDCP announced approximately $81 million for 645 local coalitions across the country as part of the DFC Support Program Continuation Grant Awards.

• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new Overdose Prevention Strategy that supports substance use prevention by expanding research of new and improved prevention efforts, investing in community resources to help prevent harms related to substance use, increasing access to high-quality pain management to reduce preventable suffering, and promoting responsible prescription of opioid medications to protect patient safety.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), launched four complementary education campaigns that provide information about the prevalence and dangers of fentanyl, the risks and consequences of mixing drugs, the life-saving power of naloxone, and the importance of reducing stigma around drug use to support treatment and recovery.
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) oversaw a three-fold increase in primary substance use prevention funding in 2021, the largest investment in primary prevention in history. Increases in funding for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) provided states and territories an additional $630 million in funding to support primary prevention efforts.
• SAMHSA supported 743 community primary prevention grants in 2021 totaling over $182 million, including grants to Tribes and local community substance use prevention coalitions to address community prevention priorities.
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), supported more than 85 new studies to inform, develop, and/or test prevention interventions in different populations and settings to prevent drug use, overdose, or other harms of drug use such as HIV and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked to improve prescribing for pain management:
• The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued its first national public safety alert in six years and launched the “One Pill Can Kill” public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl.
• DEA released details on the use of social media by criminal drug networks to market and sell deadly fake pills to teenagers and young adults. DEA publicly released known emojis and code words that are used to facilitate drug trafficking on social media to help inform the public of this growing threat.
• In August 2022, the U.S. Department of Education and ONDCP kicked off the first in a three-part program aimed at preventing youth substance use to improve student mental health and learning, titled, Transforming Youth Together: Understanding the Connection between Substance Use, Mental Health, and Student Learning – Part 1: What the Data Tells Us. This event explored what data on youth substance use and mental health tells us and how it can inform student support systems.

The SAFE Glen Cove Coalition is the only alcohol and substance use prevention agency in the City of Glen Cove. The Coalition is conducting an opioid prevention awareness campaign entitled. “Keeping Glen Cove SAFE,” in order to educate and update the community regarding opioid use and its consequences. To learn more about the SAFE Glen Cove Coalition please follow us on www.facebook.com/safeglencovecoalition or visit SAFE’s website to learn more about the Opioid Epidemic at www.safeglencove.org.