CDC funding helps states combat prescription drug overdose

Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the launch of Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States, a new program to help states end the prescription drug overdose epidemic. ThePrevention for States program plans to give 16 states annual awards between $750,000 and $1 million over the next four years to advance prevention on multiple fronts, including:

• Enhancing prescription drug monitoring programs
• Putting prevention into action in hard hit communities
• Improving health system and insurer practices to improve opioid prescribing, and
• Responding to new and emerging drug overdose issues.

States can also use the funding to better understand and respond to the increase in heroin overdose deaths, especially at the intersection of prescription opioid abuse and heroin use.

Selected States

The 16 states were selected under a highly competitive application process. Under this new program, CDC will fund: Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The President’s Budget for 2016 includes a request for the resources needed to expand CDC’s state prevention efforts to all 50 states and launch a truly national prevention program.

Learn More

For more information about the program visit Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention for States.

Learn more about prescription drug overdose at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Drug Overdose Homepage.