Tennessee could receive up to $24 million to fight heroin and painkiller addiction, if Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to provide $1.1 billion in new funding to help treat what is being called an “opioid epidemic.”
The funds would help the state create new clinics, particularly in rural areas that have been particularly hard-hit by addiction to opioids, which include both heroin and painkillers such as Oxycontin.
Federal officials released those figures Tuesday as the Obama administration ramped up its push to win approval for the money.
“Society has to begin to see addiction issues as a disease and not as character flaws,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who as chairman of the White House Rural Council is heading a task force to address the issue. “This is not people committing crimes, and it should be treated as a disease just as cancer or heart disease.”
More than 28,000 Americans died from a heroin or painkiller overdose in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.