CDC awards $28 million to help states fight opioid overdoses

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday awarded $28.6 million to help 44 states and the District of Columbia respond to the opioid overdose epidemic. The funds will be used to scale up prevention activities and prescription drug monitoring programs and better track opioid-involved overdoses. “Drug overdoses have dramatically increased over the last two decades in America,” said CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D. “This additional CDC funding to states, who are on the frontlines of the opioid overdose epidemic, is critical to help them scale up prevention efforts to fight this crisis and save lives.”