Five things to know:
1. President Joe Biden’s plan aims to address two main causes of the overdose epidemic: untreated addiction and drug trafficking.
2. To address addiction, the plan calls for expanding access to harm reduction interventions, such as the opioid overdose antidote naloxone; improving access to and quality of addiction treatment for high risk populations, including those who are experiencing homeless or are incarcerated; and strengthening data systems and research to inform drug policy development.
3. The plan also calls for federal agencies to boost efforts to identify and block traffickers from bringing illicit drugs into the U.S.
4. President Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023 includes a $3 billion increase to support drug control efforts, according to The Hill.
5. The plan comes amid record high overdose rates in the U.S. An estimated 106,854 Americans died from overdoses in the 12 months ending October 2021, the highest number of overdose deaths recorded in the U.S. in a single 12-month period, according to provisional CDC data as of April 3.
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