ONDCP Awards $273 Million to Promote Innovative Law Enforcement and Public Health Collaboration
Funding includes support for intervention and support services to reduce overdoses
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced the largest-ever award of baseline funding to its High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program. The announced funding includes a historic expansion of the innovative Overdose Response Strategy (ORS), which brings together drug intelligence officers and public health analysts at the local and regional level to share information and develop intervention and support services that reduce overdoses. The ORS will now extend to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
More than $273 million will be disbursed to 33 regional HIDTAs nationwide. Funding includes more than $5 million to expand and maintain the ORS.
The HIDTA Overdose Response Strategy, which is made possible through an unprecedented partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reduces drug overdoses by fostering interventions tailored to the communities they serve. These include law enforcement-led linkages to care, harnessing data to alert and respond to overdose spikes, and ensuring access to naloxone.
“With COVID-19 accelerating the rate of overdoses in the United States, public safety and public health leaders are facing increasing burdens,” said Acting Director of National Drug Control Policy Regina LaBelle. “As the Biden-Harris administration works to enhance and expand access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery services, this funding will strengthen law enforcement efforts to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations and create critical opportunities for collaboration between public health and public safety leaders at the local level.”
Background on HIDTA
The HIDTA Program coordinates the action and priorities of federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners in disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking organizations. HIDTA programs across the United States provide a unique platform for partnership and innovation in law enforcement.
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