The growing problem of drug abuse has seen to the CDC funding states against prescription overdose, which will hopefully see to a lowering of the increasing numbers of people falling to opioid addiction. It has caused the deaths of many, and it’s apparent that the problem is speeding up.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overdoses have seen a four times over increase since 1999, and around 16,000 people were reported to have died due to opioid abuse in 2013. The problem is rapidly growing, and it would hard pressed for anyone to find a person who is unaware of the drug problem within the United States.
The CDC have decided to take initiative, and begin their Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States project, which will see 16 states funded to combat the unfortunately common issue. It has been referred to as a “drug overdose epidemic”, and has cost the lives of many, whether due to intentional use or accidental.
The agency plans on funding each of the sixteen states with an annual donation between $750,000 to $1 million for the next four years, which will hopefully see to better results.
They will be used to enhance surveillance and monitoring programs of prescription drugs, implementing prevention programs within communities, improving health insurance practices, and responding to the abuse of new drugs.
Tennessee alone is reported to be given a $3.4 million grant within the next four years, where the problem has affected around 5% of the state’s entire population. The numbers are becoming more worrying, and it seems that additional campaigns and current preventive measures are not providing any promising results.
It is the hopes of the CDC that this will see improvement in the next few years, and they have permitted all the sixteen states to use the additional funding to respond to the increasing numbers of heroin abuse and deaths across the United States, along with investigating the possible connection between prescription drugs and heroin use.
With better surveillance programs and a partnership among the CDC, states and communities, it might help better understand the full story behind the unfortunate rise of opioid abuse, and perhaps even prevent it.
It has been a severe problem for a long time, to the point where a law allows prescription for naloxone, an urgent fix that reverses the effects of drug overdose through injection or nasal spray.
The funds will be going to Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin, with hopes of eventually expanding in all states.
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