Blake Moore: “This amendment to add funding to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would support the…”

“This amendment to add funding to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would support the distribution of fentanyl test strips by our State and local public health partners. Unintentional drug overdose deaths have climbed to record high levels, claiming around 70,000 lives in the United States in 2017. One of the drivers is fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is significantly more potent than heroin. Because fentanyl is so cheap and strong, dealers have an incentive to use it to cut drugs such as heroin and cocaine. In New York City in 2017--just to name one locality, but the story is the same in many other places--fentanyl was involved in 57 percent of all the drug overdose deaths. Between 2000 and 2012, that rate was only 2 percent, but in 2017 it was much higher. This crisis, a public health epidemic and emergency, means that we need to bring more tools to the fight. While some agencies, like the NIH, have noted the need to consider all evidence-based programs that can help address the damage being caused in our communities by opioids, others, like SAMHSA, have clearly not, which is troubling. In April, the NIH awarded a grant to the University of Kentucky that aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths by 40 percent in 16 counties using evidence-based solutions.…”