The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $53 million in funding to improve access to treatment for opioid use disorders, reduce opioid-related deaths and strengthen drug misuse prevention efforts.

Funding will also be earmarked for improved data collection and analysis around opioid misuse and overdose as well as better tracking of fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses.

New Jersey was among the 44 states to receive funds from six different programs:

• The Prescription Drug Opioid Overdose Prevention Grants will provide up to $11 million to 12 states, including New Jersey, to reduce opioid overdose-related deaths. Funding will support training on prevention of opioid overdose-related deaths as well as the purchase and distribution of naloxone to first responders. 
• The Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Prescription Drugs Grants provide up to $9 million to 21 states, including New Jersey, to strengthen drug misuse prevention efforts. The grant program provides an opportunity for states that have completed a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant to target the priority issue of prescription drug misuse. The program is designed to raise awareness about the dangers of sharing medications and work to address the risks of overprescribing. The program also seeks to raise community awareness and bring prescription drug misuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents, prescribers and their patients.
• The Medication-Assisted Treatment Prescription Drug Opioid Addiction Grants will provide up to $11 million to 11 states to expand access to medication-assisted treatment services for persons with opioid use disorder. This program targets states identified as having the highest rates of primary treatment admissions for heroin and prescription opioids per capita, and prioritizes those states with the most dramatic recent increases for heroin and opioids.
• The Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention for States program provides up to $11.5 million in supplemental funding to 14 states. This supplemental funding will support the ongoing work of awardees, allowing awardees to address issues such as high overdose death rates in tribal communities and improve toxicology and drug screening.
• The Prescription Drug Overdose: Data-Driven Prevention Initiative will award $6 million to 13 states, including New Jersey, to advance and evaluate state-level prevention activities to address opioid misuse and overdose. That includes enhancing their ability to: improve data collection and analysis; develop strategies that impact behaviors driving prescription opioid misuse; and work with communities to develop more comprehensive opioid overdose prevention programs.
• The Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality program is awarding $4.27 million in funds to 12 states to better track fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses.

The grants are provided through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.