The Granite State will see a significant increase in federal funds for opioid treatment, the state’s two U.S. senators announced Thursday.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan said that New Hampshire will receive $22.9 million in the 2018 fiscal year – which goes through the end of September – through grants distributed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
That’s more than seven times the $3.1 million the state currently receives annually through the 21st Century Cures Act.
Shaheen and Hassan joined senators from other states hard hit by the drug crisis to push for the increased funding for New Hampshire and other states that are experiencing high percentages of drug overdoses due to the opioid epidemic.
“This significant increase in funding for treatment is long overdue and will undoubtedly help save lives across our state,” Shaheen said. “Far too many Granite Staters are suffering because they can’t get the treatment they desperately need as demand far outweighs supply.”
Hassan explained that “it has long been clear that we need significantly more funding to combat the opioid crisis, and this announcement is an important next step in our efforts to help save lives and support those on the front lines of this devastating epidemic.”
Shaheen and Hassan – as members of the Senate’s Common Sense Caucus – helped secure an additional $6 billion nationally to help fight the drug crisis, as part of a budget deal earlier this year that averted a federal budget shutdown.
They also fought for changes to the federal opioid funding formula that put states like New Hampshire with small populations and high mortality rates from drug overdoses at a disadvantage.
Shaheen and Hassan said SAMSHA agreed to change the funding formula to make it more favorable to states like New Hampshire. It also agreed to limit the number of states eligible for a pot of $142 million in federal funds set aside for states hardest hit by the drug crisis.
New Hampshire is one of those states. According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it has the third-highest rate of death from a drug overdose per capita (39 per 100,000), behind West Virginia and Ohio.