- The Biden Administration renews America’s commitment to harm reduction.
- In May, the President announced $1.5 billion in state opioid response grants. Then, last month, Biden issued a proclamation on overdose awareness week that describes the White House’s commitment to “prevention, treatment, harm-reduction, and recovery support services” —which the President backed-up with a proposed budget that includes additional “$24.3 billion to support the expansion of evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services.”
- The FDA also issued its new framework for preventing overdoses which now includes “encouraging harm reduction through innovation and education,” such as “increasing the distribution of naloxone.”
- Billions of dollars from the national opioid settlement could be used to fund overdose prevention efforts.
- As Route 50 explains, “This summer, the first payments from the national opioid settlement were sent to governments and as of September, $310 million has gone out to 27 states. The national settlement resolves opioid litigation brought by states and local governments against the three largest pharmaceutical distributors [as well as] Johnson & Johnson. According to the agreement, the distributors and Johnson & Johnson will provide for payments totaling $26 billion, with more than $23.9 billion available to fund efforts to stem the crisis.”
- New York City will use $150 million in opioid settlement dollars to fund overdose prevention centers, expand access to mobile harm reduction clinics, and allow for 24/7 operations of emergency department substance use response teams at several hospitals. | Rhode Island is using $2.25 million of opioid settlement dollars to fund an overdose prevention site. “You can’t get people into recovery if you don’t save lives,” Rhode Island Rep. John G. Edwards said to the Providence Journal. “There are so many people affected. It’s important to get this center open.”
- Overdose prevention sites are critical, but are just one potential use of settlement dollars. “The settlements will allow for a broad range of approved abatement uses by state and local governments, [… including] a wide range of intervention, treatment, education, and recovery services so that state and local governments can decide what will best serve their communities.” Launching or expanding programs similar to the ones we describe above—from CORE in Florida to NICE in Austin to QRT in Huntington—could be a good fit for some of these funds.
