NH Delegation Announces $500,000 Over Five Years Heading to NH to Address the Substance Use Disorder Epidemic
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Representatives Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Chris Pappas (NH-01) announced CARA Local Drug Crises Grants to help stem the substance use disorder epidemic in New Hampshire. The recipients include the Dover Coalition for Youth and the Raymond Coalition for Youth, each of which will receive $250,000 over five years.
The CARA Local Drug Crises Program supports community efforts to prevent and reduce local drug use, including opioids, methamphetamines and prescription medications, among young Americans between the ages of 12 and 18. Today’s grants are five-year awards and comprise part of a $3.25 trillion effort from the Biden-Harris administration to address the youth drug crisis.
“The pandemic took a devastating toll on our communities by exacerbating the substance use disorder epidemic, with too many young Granite Staters falling prey to this drug crisis. That’s why federal relief is so important, and I’m pleased to welcome robust CARA grants to Dover and Raymond to invest in critical prevention and treatment efforts,” said Shaheen. “This funding will help address the root causes of substance misuse among teenagers and support at-risk youth struggling with addiction. Stemming the substance use disorder epidemic, especially for those working to recover from opioid and meth dependencies, has always been a top concern for me. I’ll continue to work across the aisle to secure investments in drug abuse education, prevention and support for our state.”
“Granite Staters in communities across New Hampshire are feeling the devastating effects of the substance use disorder crisis, and tragically addiction often starts at a young age,” said Hassan. “These investments can help prevent and reduce substance use disorder among young people, helping keep young lives on track. I am proud to announce that these two New Hampshire organizations are receiving significant federal dollars to boost their substance use disorder programs and provide indispensable support to their communities.”
“The substance abuse crisis in New Hampshire and across the country has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we must continue efforts to prevent and treat addiction, particularly for younger populations,” said Kuster, founder and co-chair of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force. “This significant CARA funding will bolster efforts to prevent substance misuse and expand access to resources for our most at-risk Granite Staters. I will continue working in Congress to ensure every Granite Stater has the tools they need to thrive. ”
“It is vital that we continue to address the ongoing substance use disorder epidemic throughout New Hampshire,” said Pappas. “The federal funding announced today is a critical investment in the health and wellbeing of our communities as we work to ensure all Granite Staters grappling with addiction and substance use disorder can access the treatment and support they need.”
“The Raymond Coalition For Youth is very excited to hear that we are being awarded 2021 CARA funding. This funding is crucial to supporting the substance misuse prevention work we do in our community with our partners. We are very grateful to Senator Shaheen and her office for supporting the work of the Raymond Coalition For Youth and being a voice in Washington for the importance of investing in substance misuse prevention,” said Celeste Clark, Executive Director of the Raymond Coalition for Youth.
“The Dover Coalition for Youth is grateful for the continued financial support through the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Local Drug Crisis Grant program. This funding allows the Dover Police Department, through the Coalition, to prevent youth opioid and methamphetamine use throughout our community in new and innovative ways. We will continue to address root causes of substance misuse such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), parental involvement, availability of substances, and community norms. This funding will also allow us to provide additional supports to high risk populations such as LGBTQ youth and students who report living with someone with a substance use disorder. We thank Sen. Shaheen for her ongoing support of prevention efforts and working to secure prevention funding for NH communities,” said Vickie Harris, the Coalition Coordinator and Project Director of the Dover Coalition for Youth.
These awards are funded by Congress and administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), which also administers the Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery (CARA) Act of 2016 authorizes awards to existing or previous recipients of DFC awards to implement comprehensive community-wide strategies that address local drug crises and emerging issues.
Shaheen and Hassan have spearheaded crucial legislation and funding to stem the opioid epidemic, including through Shaheen’s leadership on the pivotal Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies which oversees funding for the Department of Justice and its related anti-opioid programs. Shaheen supported the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 3.0 to help combat the opioid epidemic. In?government funding legislation signed into law in 2020, Shaheen again included a key provision from the 2019 version of her legislation -?Turn the Tide Act, which she has reintroduced this year and is cosponsored by Senator Hassan?- to provide flexibility for treatment providers to use State Opioid Response (SOR) grant dollars to help patients suffering from meth and cocaine dependency, in addition to opioid use disorders.?Shaheen wrote the provision in response to discussions with New Hampshire treatment providers. The FY2021 funding legislation also provided $1.5 billion in SOR grant funding, as well as the continuing of a 15 percent set-aside that Shaheen and Hassan fought to secure in 2018 for hard-hit states like New Hampshire. These combined efforts led to a more than tenfold increase in federal treatment and prevention funding for New Hampshire. Over the past four years, New Hampshire has received approximately $92 million from these grants Shaheen and Hassan helped secure to combat the opioid epidemic in the state, with the hardest-hit state set-aside responsible for the majority of those funds.
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