The White House Announces Newly Designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to Provide New Resources to Disrupt and Dismantle Drug Trafficking

Designations Support President Biden’s Strategy to Beat the Overdose Epidemic by Deploying New Resources to Disproportionately Affected Areas

WASHINGTON, D.C.— To support President Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta today announced the addition of six counties to the ONDCP-funded High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program.

The newly designated counties are:

• Butte County, California (joining the Central Valley California HIDTA)
• Vigo County, Indiana (joining the Indiana HIDTA)
• Cumberland County, New Jersey (joining the Liberty Mid-Atlantic HIDTA) 
• Salem County, New Jersey (joining the Liberty Mid-Atlantic HIDTA)
• Schenectady County, New York (joining the New York/New Jersey HIDTA)
• Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (joining the Ohio HIDTA)

“Drug trafficking operations threaten the health and safety of our communities,” said ONDCP Director Dr. Rahul Gupta. “That is why disrupting and dismantling these operations and their profits is a key focus of President Biden’s Strategy to beat the overdose epidemic. By newly designating these counties as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, we will ensure our local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement officers have the resources they need to reduce the supply of illicit drugs like fentanyl, prevent overdoses, and save lives.”

The HIDTA program supports regional law enforcement efforts in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. The addition of these six counties to the HIDTA program will allow additional resources to be deployed to areas disproportionately affected by drug trafficking and overdoses.

Some prominent examples from these new designations include Vigo County which encompasses the city of Terre Haute. Cumberland County is also facing a high overdose rate. Recently, it was ranked in the top three counties per capita for most naloxone deployed by emergency medical services and law enforcement. Incorporating all six of these counties in the HIDTA program will allow for more resources to be deployed to these areas.

President Biden’s FY 2023 budget calls for a historic $293.5 million in funding for the HIDTA program, which is managed by ONDCP. In April, Dr. Gupta announced $275 million for HIDTA Program providing additional resources to 33 regional HIDTAs. The funding also supports public health and public safety partnerships like the Overdose Response Strategy (ORS) – a partnership between the HIDTA program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that works to reduce overdoses. Specifically, ORS brings together drug intelligence officers and public health analysts at the local and regional level to share information and develop evidence-based intervention and support services that reduce overdoses including law enforcement-led linkages to care, use data to alert and respond to overdose spikes, and ensure access to naloxone.

For a map of HIDTA Program Counties, please click HERE.

Read the Biden-Harris Administration’s inaugural National Drug Control Strategy HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the Strategy HERE.

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