$1.5B rolled out to fight opioid overdoses

The White House on Friday rolled out $1.5 billion in funding for preventing drug overdoses during an event that included a policy summit later in the day. More than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021—most from opioids, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money will go to all 50 states, law enforcement groups, and rehab programs through health and human services, officials said.

Have other efforts been made to prevent overdosing? Also on Thursday, the Los Angeles Unified School District said all of its schools will now carry Narcan, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses. At least seven teenagers in the school system have overdosed on opioids in recent weeks, including one 15-year-old girl, Melanie Ramos, who died of an apparent overdose in a high school bathroom. Tennessee reported a new class of drugs, Nitazenes, which West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey described as “10 times as potent as fentanyl.”

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Dunn’s report in Roundups about how Narcan is becoming more prevalent in schools across America.