White House Drug Policy Director Statement on $1.5 Billion in New Funding for States and Tribes to Address the Overdose Epidemic and Save Even More Lives

As the number of overdose deaths decline nationwide, the Biden-Harris Administration announces new funding for states, territories, and Tribes to strengthen efforts to expand access to life-saving treatment, prevention, and recovery support services for substance use disorder

Washington, D.C. – As the country is seeing the largest decrease in overdose deaths on record, the Biden-Harris Administration announced more than $1.5 billion today for all fifty states, the U.S. territories, and Tribes to strengthen their efforts to address the nation’s overdose epidemic and save even more lives. The new funding, distributed through the State Opioid Response (SOR) and Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grant programs, will help states, territories, and Tribes increase access to medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder, and strengthen prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for substance use disorder. Through this program, states have been able to provide treatment services to over 1.2 million people across the country since 2018, purchase over 9 million overdose reversal medication kits, and reverse more than 550,000 overdoses.

“While we are seeing the number of overdose deaths begin to decrease after years of dramatic increases, we must continue to double and triple down on our whole-of-society efforts to address the overdose epidemic and save even more lives,” said White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta. “Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, we have removed decades-long barriers to treatment for opioid use disorder and expanded access to life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone. Following these historic actions, and state and local efforts on the ground, the latest data is showing the largest decrease in overdose deaths on record. This is both a beacon of hope and an urgent call to action for us all to continue working together to beat this crisis. And today, we are providing more than $1.5 billion in new funding to help ensure states and Tribes have the critical resources they need to continue building on this progress.”

President Biden and Vice President Harris have made addressing the nation’s overdose epidemic a key pillar of the President’s Unity Agenda for the Nation. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has not only taken historic policy actions, but invested historic amounts of funding to strengthen public health. Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, the Administration is investing $83 billion in treatment, which is 42% more than was made under the previous Administration. At the same time, the Administration has increased resources and cutting-edge drug detection technology at the border, taken more law enforcement action against drug traffickers and their key enablers that operate around the globe, and strengthened global action in the fight against synthetic opioids.

In addition to these historic efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized a whole-of-society response to beat this crisis. Earlier this month, to mark the start of a new school year, ONDCP announced nearly $94 million in new funding for more than 750 Drug-Free Communities (DFC) coalitions working to prevent youth substance use across the country. Just last week, in recognition of National Recovery Month, the Administration hosted dozens of leaders representing states, businesses, unions, and associations at the White House who are in the process or have recently been certified as Recovery-Friendly Workplaces and are leading efforts to support recovery in the workplace.

When President Biden and Vice President Harris took office in January 2021, the number of overdose deaths were increasing 31% year-over-year. According to the latest provisional data released from the CDC this month, overdose deaths decreased by about 10% year-over-year (in the 12-months ending April 2024). This is the largest decrease on record and the fifth consecutive month of reported decreases in predicted 12-month total numbers of drug overdose deaths.

Read ONDCP Director Dr. Gupta’s statement on latest drug overdose death data HERE.

Read more on the Biden-Harris Administration actions to address the overdose epidemic HERE.

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